Feelin like a gone-ass limb right after I moved to Nashville, I wrote the poor, severed blues.
Poor, Severed Blues
all fogged up by contradiction
dubious claims of nuclear fission
following flawed intuition
caught up in a dream
it's like when I spoke up you all turned weak
when I said "not the other cheek"
I mean, whatever happened to all of the courage
you required of me?
did you even know that your voice sounded strange?
were you even really aware of your bleating range
when you shimmied out into the great unknown?
you all: short-sighted as me
me: long-armed as the law
reached out for a helping hand
only found a claw
or the calling of a crow
made me heartsick to know
that I was born of a desire
and the vagaries of a fictional fire
my hands were tied, I nearly died
just trying to be understood
it was in the anteroom there when I figured I'd stay
when I heard the sounds of the country & western radio play
"big city turn me loose and set me free"
but I swear that I never felt so fucking alone
as when you were minutes away, didn't answer your phone
I just sat in East Park holding onto a part
of a poor, severed, broken heart
did you even know that your voice sounded distant?
were you even really aware that I was scared of persistence?
by the rising and in the light of the waning moon
you all: blind as a bunch of bats
me: long-armed as the law
reached out for a helping hand
I didn't find a friend
just the calling of a crow
made me heartsick to know
that I was born of a desire
to be not herded, but heard
cut down by the wire, everything got so dire
as I was struggling to be understood
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvzSTrLcsp0
A newly finished version of "Sugarmask" from my year off of West End in Nashville (2014-2015).
To hear more visit:
https://johndavey.bandcamp.com/music OR http://johndaveysings.com/
Amy's bones protrude
she is lying in the nude
smoke and faint scent of perfume
in the early afternoon
with her sugar mask still on
from her party until dawn
grabbed from a bargain bin
at the sale on the lawn
Harlan whispers
"baby, I don't mean to stray
but I cannot be true"
tiptoes out the way he came
one and one don't always
make it up to two
delineated and defined
sometimes to live it means to die
and some of us still get
sometimes you die just to survive
like when Clare she whispers
"John, I did not mean to stray
but I have not been true"
I tiptoe out the way I came
one and one don't always
make it up to two
hangers-on
find someone else
you hangers-on
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOL1zjWqSjc