"

So come on boy
Hasn’t it been long enough?
When all you’re ever thinking of
Is “Where are the arms that armed your love?”

And come on girl
In the window that you now look through
You see him gray and cold and old
Where are the arms that armed your love?

Come on heart
Dress yourself in comfy clothes
Color-cut and fresh-cut rose
Where are the arms that armed your love?
Where are the arms that armed your love?
Where are the arms that armed your love?

"

"

If I ever get around to living
I’m gonna put my things away
In the drawers and in the closets
And there I’ll stay
Stay

If I ever get around to living
It’s gonna be just like I dreamed
I’m gonna take the love I’m giving
And set it free
Free

If I ever get around to living
I’ll take the end of every day
And tie it up to every morning
And sail away
Away

Free
Free

Maybe it’s all a dream
I’m having at 17
I don’t have tattoos
And very soon
Mother will be calling me
Saying, “Come upstairs,
I got some work to do”

When you gonna wise up, boy?
When you gonna wise up, boy?
When you gonna wise up, boy?
When you gonna wise up, boy?

You are hiding in your mind
Working all the time
Trying to make it better than you got it
And you been spending all your time
Searching for a sign
That’s never gonna look the way you want it

I think you better wise up, boy
I think you better wise up, boy
I think you better wise up, boy
I think you better wise up, boy
I think you better wise up, boy
I think you better wise up, boy

"

"I am GLAD our son kicked the SHIT outta your son, and I wipe my ASS with your human rights!"

"

I don’t want to
Talk about it to you
Not an open book
That you can rifle through
The cold, hard truth
That you see right to
I’m just a basket case without you

He’s not a magic man
Or a perfect fit
But had a steady hand
And I got used to it
And a glass-caged heart
That invited me in
And now I’m just a basket case without him

You’re begging for the truth
So I’m saying it to you
I’ve been saving your place
And what good does it do?
Now I’m just a basket case
Now I’m just a basket case

I don’t say much
And it’ll stay that way
You got a steal-train touch
And I’m just a track you lay
So I’ll stay right here
Underneath you
I’m just a basket case
It’s what we do

You’re begging for the truth
So I’m saying it to you
I’ve been saving your place
And what good does it do?
Now I’m just a basket case

Won’t somebody come on in
And tug my seams
Or send your armies in
Of robbers and thieves
To steal the state I’m in
I don’t want it anymore

You’re begging for the truth
So I’m saying it to you
I’ve been saving your place
And what good does it do?
Now I’m just a basket case
Now I’m just a basket case

"

"

I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails
Across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
It was the strings of my guitar
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

The drone of flying engines
Fuels a song so wild and blue
It scrambles time
And seasons if it gets through to you
And your life becomes a travelog
Of picture postcard charms
Oh, Amelia, it was just a false alarm

People will tell where they’ve gone
They’ll tell you where to go
They’ll tell you “Get there yourself”
You never really know
Or some have found their paradise
Others just come to harm
Oh, Amelia, it was just a false alarm

I wish that he was here tonight
So hard to obey
His said request of me
To kindly stay away
So this is how I hide the hurt
As the road leads cursed and charmed
I tell Amelia, “It was just a false alarm”

A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea
Like me, she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful, foolish arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

Maybe I’ve never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I’ve spent my whole life in clouds
At icy altitudes
And looking down on everything
I crashed into his arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows
Of my wanderlust
I dreamed of 747s
Over geometric farms
Dreams, Amelia, dreams
And false alarms

"

"I need to say something. Um. It’s no big secret: your mom and I are in hell right now, and um… bottom line is… marriage is hard. It’s really fucking hard. It’s just… just two people, slogging through the shit, year after year, getting older, changing. It’s a fucking marathon, OK? It’s just sometimes, you’re together so long that you just, you stop seeing the other person, you just see weird projections of your own junk. Instead of, instead of talking to each other, you go off the rails, and act grubby, and make stupid choices, which is what I did, and I feel sick about it because I love you guys, and I love your mom, and that’s the truth. Sometimes you hurt the ones you love the most, I don’t know why. I, you know, if I’d read more Russian novels, and… anyway. I just wanted to say how sorry I am for what I did. I hope you’ll forgive me eventually. Thank you."

"I, um… clearly wasn’t prepared for this because I would’ve dressed better. So where do… where do I begin? Um. I guess with my heart attack. I had one, recently, and am told that I was dead for three minutes. Which is weird because it felt longer. But when I woke up, there was this light, and I know, it just sounds like the most cliche, bullshit thing that you ever heard of, but imagine every wonderful thing you can think of enveloping you: happiness, sex, pastrami. And it just… I didn’t want to come back. It just felt so right. But I did come back. I came to my bills and my problems, you know… my… my bullshit. Like the water faucet on my bathroom sink. The hot-water faucet on my bathroom sink. It keeps breaking, and it’s really annoying. You know, so last week, I decided I was gonna spend the afternoon fixing it, and I couldn’t get it to work. And I got so angry, I started yelling at it, What the fuck is wrong with you??’ And that’s when I caught sight of myself in the mirror, and I said, ‘What’s wrong with me? Why do I have any right getting stressed out about anything when I know that light is waiting for me?’ And here’s the thing: it’s not just when you die. It’s here. I think it’s here, I think it’s all around us, I think it’s just waiting for us to tap into it. I might’ve had to die to wake up, but you don’t have to. You? You don’t have to."