Elixir Sue

December 12, 2005

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?

I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,

I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,

I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,

I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,

I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,

And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?

I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it

I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,

I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',

I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin',

I saw a white ladder all covered with water,

I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,

I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,

And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?

And what did you hear, my darling young one?

I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin',

Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,

Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin',

Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',

Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin',

Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,

Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,

And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?

Who did you meet, my darling young one?

I met a young child beside a dead pony,

I met a white man who walked a black dog,

I met a young woman whose body was burning,

I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,

I met one man who was wounded in love,

I met another man who was wounded with hatred,

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?

I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',

I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,

Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,

Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,

Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,

Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,

Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,

Where black is the color, where none is the number,

And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,

And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,

Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',

But I'll know my song well before I start singin',

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

December 11, 2005

Did it all get real? I guess it's real enough.

They got refrigerators full of blood

another century spent pointing guns

at anything that moves.

Sometimes I worry that

I've lost the plot like

My twitchin' muscles tease my flippin' thoughts.

I never really dreamed of heaven much

until we put him in the ground,

but it's all I'm doing now

listening for patterns in the

sound of an endless static sea.

But once the satellite's deceased,

it blows like garbage through the

streets of the nightsky to infinity.

But don't you weep for them

Don't you weep

There is nothing as lucky... Honey, don't you weep.

Don't you weep for them

There is nothing as lucky...as easy...or free.

Don't be a criminal in this police state.

You'd better shop and eat and pro-create.

You've got vacation days, and

you might escape to a condo on the coast.

I set my watch to the atomic clock.

I hear the crowd count down till the bomb gets dropped.

I always figured there'd be time enough

I never let it get me down, but I can't help it now

looking for faces in the clouds.

I've got some friends I barely see,

but we're all planning to meet...

we'll lay in bags as dead as leaves all together for eternity.

But don't you weep

Don't you weep for us

There is no one as lucky... Honey, don't you weep.

Don't you weep for us

There is nothing as lucky...as easy...or free.

December 11, 2005

Untie me, I've said no vows

The train is getting way too loud

I gotta leave here my girl

Get on with my lonely life

Just leave the ring on the rail

For the wheels to nullify

Until this turn in my head

I let you stay and you paid no rent

I spent twelve long months on the lam

That's enough sitting on the fence

For the fear of breaking dams

I find a fatal flaw

In the logic of love

And go out of my head

You love a sinking stone

That'll never elope

So get used to the lonesome

Girl, you must atone some

Don't leave me no phone number there

It took me all of a year

To put the poison pill to your ear

But now I stand on honest ground, on honest ground

You want to fight for this love

But honey you cannot wrestle a dove

So baby it's clear

You want to jump and dance

But you sat on your hands

And lost your only chance

Go back to your hometown

Get your feet on the ground

And stop floating around

I find a fatal flaw

In the logic of love

And go out of my head

You love a sinking stone

That'll never elope

So get used to used to the lonesome

Girl, you must atone some

Don't leave me no phone number there

December 8, 2005

As soon as you're born they make you feel small

By giving you no time instead of it all

Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all