when strangers say hello | anthony-walker

THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD

In the year of the flood

It occurred to me

Just how heavy the rain could be

There’s wrong in you and no wrong in me

In the year of the flood

It occurred to me

In the year of the flood

It kept coming down

All our friends were going around

Looking for something that can’t be found

In the year of the flood

It kept coming down

In the year of the flood

We stayed dry

The cities sank and you covered your eyes

Even though we were just getting by

In the year of the flood

We stayed dry

QUEEN OF DIAMONDS

The Queen of Diamonds finally met her match

She sits on beds of roses and broken glass

The hours crawl, the seconds are slow to pass

To be home again

I wanted you to know

It’s time I’m on the road again

And everywhere I go

It feels like I belong somewhere so far away

Long agos of which we never spoke

A dragon’s fast asleep with a heart of smoke

The Queen of Diamonds said when he awoke

To sleep again

RUBBERNECKER

Reading your plots and your lies and your secrets

The rise and fall of all the things you’ve done

And all you’ve done is here and it’s open to anyone

Are you keeping score of wars you’ve waged and won?

It made you look away

It’s a measure of our love of our decay

Hard luck, our luck is not to blame

It’s so easy to explain

Just tell me why

Eluded, but who did you think you were fooling

You’re trying harder and harder not to tell

And you’ll never tell

There’s lines in your face in your prison cell

Where the phone still rings

Is this your living hell?

These are desperate times

Pick yourself up off the pavement

Get your head out of your basement

Are you too tired to break in?

Politely, we’re damned

OLD BLUE

(Traditional song adapted by Anthony Walker)

I had an old dog and his name was Blue

Bet you five dollars he’s a good dog too

Blue chased a possum up a hollow limb

The possum growled

Blue growled at him

Bye bye Blue

You good dog, you

And when he died he died so hard

It shook the ground in my backyard

When I get to heaven, the first thing I’ll do

Is pick up my horn and call for Blue

LIGHT OF MINE

I like sweeping up at night

When strangers say hello

There’s broken bottles everywhere

Graffiti in the snow

You can drag me home and tell me all I need to know

Light of mine

We were bandits long ago

And the money wasn’t bad

When policemen found us out

It only made you mad

I think of all the things we took

And all the fun we had

Light of mine

I invented science

I was pardoned of my sin

I never shook the feeling my attire is my skin

It has not worn or faded

But it has not broken in

Light of mine

I watched you late last dinner-time

You plant a burning seed

You blame it on the earth and things the fever made you see

Then I walked in all out of luck

Another mouth to feed

Light of mine

THE INFORMATION AGE (YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO)

We’ve come to masquerade

The mask you’ve made is wearing thin

Broken-jawed defender of the mouth

Tooth and nail

The words assail

It takes an iron tongue

Just to keep the truth from coming out

But you don’t have to go

You don’t have to talk so slow

Signals tease

The new disease

The clergy is immune

The damned are busy curing all the saved

You noticed how the warning was inviting

And after all

The information really shows its age

You don’t have to go

You don’t have to let me know

Now you want to find a way

Passion is magnetic

Now you’re hopefully aware

Your pilot’s ready

Master of your mind

His broken arrow’s laughing in the face of open sky

What goes up simply must collide

You don’t have to go

You don’t have to fall so low

MYTHS & STRINGS

I live with myths and strings

Winding and unravelling

There’s silence

Then suddenly it sings

It’s revolution baby

And it don’t cost a thing

And you will not pass this by

Long winds in outer space

You know you taught me how to look away

I never thought I say

This illusion, baby, gets clearer every day

Burn

Let it burn

What I’m asking you is are you ever gonna learn?

I’m bleeding, man

You’re gonna have to wait your turn

LUCKY NUMBERS

You're on California time
Mother Nature’s only child

And after all those highway miles you took a stand

Curtains fall

You take a bow

The getaways run smoother now

Summer leaves they burn and brown

They fall so plain

So tell me baby what have you to gain

This whole thing’s drying up

You’d better pray for rain

Born at the height of youth

The sunshine it envies you

The sleeping never speak the truth

No false alarms

Out in the sinking west

Wake me when the coma ends

You shake off this brush with death

The madman’s comb

Somewhere else, the faces turn to stone

They would save the world, if not for telephones

I’ve been staying up at night

Taking flight

I’m taking flight

To where the math all works out right

And it’s alright

Bets are in

The odds are stacked

Heads ache and hearts attack

Hard love

No coming back

No closing call

Evacuation

Touch of gold

With lost hope the merry go

Where buried treasures bought and sold

Someplace downtown

They sky is falling

Listen to the sound

All your lucky numbers

They just let you down

BORN TO CRAWL

Something’s watching over me

High above the birds and bees

Honey, we’ll fly south or freeze someday

I’m always going nowhere fast

A memory like laughing gas

Shadows that mistakes have cast won’t stay

You won’t let me in

Oh, what have I done

I don’t know where I’m from

But I know where I belong

You won’t let me stay

What have I done wrong

Don’t send me back to start

I don’t know why I came in here at all

It’s so funny how you draw the line

You live on someone else’s dime

We’re made for glory, we’re gonna find a way

You never say the same thing twice

You love the way that lightning strikes

You took a chance, you rolled the dice my way

This is not how people get along

It’s not so hard to see what’s going on

So round and round and round we go

Some will fall and some will know

Some will die and some will grow again

DARLENE

Staring at a question mark

You’re faking, Jesus, you’re parading in the dark

You spent the evening cruising for a spark

But there's no highway to the sun

When morning comes again, Darlene

We'll reach out and take a piece

Oh I swear this shadows not your enemy

Believe me, I believe in you, Darlene

I've always wondered what you'd think

You've read so many books you only dream in ink

And every time you let it go it sinks

Down some sad familiar page

The words are softer now, Darlene

Make adventure out of me

And if every chapter ends in misery

Believe me, I believe in you, Darlene

You're a little unimpressed

You left a message on a pack of cigarettes

If no one talks about how good it gets

Then how am I supposed to know?

If there's no telling now, Darlene

Your wheels are begging for concrete

Are you thinking up someplace you'd rather be

Believe me, I believe in you, Darlene

The time that we spend just keeping track

Who's over their head?

Who's under attack?

When I go, there will be no turning back

I built a stranger in my mind

I paint some pictures but they never come to life

Fixing you is like sharpening a knife

So I have nothing more to say

They’ll turn on Channel 17

Watching from their window seat

And they'll say "Hey, I think I know you from TV"

But I'll say, "Believe me, I believed in you, Darlene"

RESTLESS

When you need a friend

Your arms around an echo

Invisible heirs

Your stolen crown

We’ll see what’s up your sleeve

Your shoulders and your elbow

I’m dying to lay your burden down

I know

I know you’re like the rest

I know you’re like the restless

Taking you up and down again

So, I’ve come to know and mimic your revival

I’m playing the fool

You play the clown

Come, I’ll know you from the sound of your arrival

I start to believe these things I’ve found