1. |
When You Became A Ghost
03:16
|
|||
When You Became A Ghost
When you became a ghost, you
Did not haunt those you’d been close to
But you hung around the pigeons
Let the sun in
Let the wind blow through
Observing men and women
Children dressed in crème and lemon
Couples strolling afterhours
Wilting flowers
Loves that should have been
There had been some sort of error
An oversight, you guess:
But you hadn’t been allowed
Up amongst the choiring crowd
With the Cloud of Witnesses
The ground was parched; the air, dry
When you woke under a sharp sky
With the stillness of a watched clock
And the slow shock
Of a long goodbye
Free of all desire and doubt
All credibility and clout
Breathless and insubstantial
As a man’s soul
When he’s been burned-out
When you became a ghost, you
Did not haunt those you’d been close to
But you hung around the pigeons
Let the sun in
Let the wind blow--
Let the sun in
Let the wind blow through
© 2012 Lacie Mangels
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
2. |
Wait For It
04:17
|
|||
Wait For It
Not very long ago
It was too cold to move
Now it’s too hot to even breathe
The grasses strain to grow
The brittle’s pushed to break
The sparrows sigh; cicadas seethe
Despite my trembling
Despite my dread
I can say, with everything but certainty:
There’s a morning still ahead
That is, unless the earth
Begins to melt away
Unless we all are swallowed-up
But now, for what it’s worth
I’ll hold on tight to you
Like you’re a hard-won loving-cup
Despite my trembling
Despite my dread
I can say, with everything but certainty:
There’s a morning still ahead
I am so full of waste
And empty little wants
For Things have swayed me with their song
I like the way they taste
The way they satiate
As they come running down my tongue
Despite my trembling
Despite my dread
I can say, with everything but certainty:
There’s a morning still ahead
It’s been too dry to hope for anything
But even I can still admit
There’s a respite, there's a breath
If you’ll only wait for it
So, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it…
© 2012 Lacie Mangels / Scott Swartz
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
3. |
Infinite Improvement
03:24
|
|||
Infinite Improvement
Lovely, lovely, lovely: if you'll notice
I said it three times-- that means you're
lovelier than anyone
And I know I don't know much, but I know this:
You'd be perfectly just to leave me languishing and all alone
But only stay...But only stay...
I came, I saw, I took you for granted
I turned your romantics into a Herculean chore
Now I feel, I fear you've been disenchanted
You've got one foot keeping time, you've got
the other out the door
But only stay...But only stay...
But only stay, I'll give you ten percent
And that's an infinite improvement
Over nothing
Have pity on a ne'er-do-well
I've knocked on windows
Called on stairwells
No one would let me in
I don't deserve a thing I've been handed
And I've demanded blessing when I should have been accurst
But, Lovely, O, please don't leave me
here stranded
And if I haven't any best maybe you can suppress my worst
And only stay..And only stay..And only stay
And only stay, I'll give you ten percent
And that's an infinite improvement
Over nothing
© 2012 Lacie Mangels / Scott Swartz
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
4. |
Natal Star
03:24
|
|||
Natal Star
All's beauteous and bright
On this Night of all Nights
But I'm tired and torn
Thread-bare and care-worn
Uncomfortable in my own skin
Plebeians and princes
Crossed great distances
Bound for David's City
And a Nativity
That's yet to be born in my heart
Over-head, hovering
Sweetly cherubim sing
From their realm in the sky
So impossibly high
That no tidings will light on my ears
Still the Mystics divine
Still the Natal Star shines
And though the sky's full and low
She refuses to snow
I refuse to open up my eyes
All's diluted and pale
In this achromic vale
But you follow the charts
And the greyness departs
From you, slowly but assuredly
I've been promised this, too
I've been promised this, too
I've been promised: why don't I believe?
© 2012 Lacie Mangels
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
5. |
Augustine - I. Pear Tree
03:10
|
|||
Augustine - I. Pear Tree
Before the nimbus-crown
Before the Beatific Vision
There's the falling down
And the perdition
There was a pear tree out on the Algiers plain
(The Empire was still strong then)
Before the crucible and the labor-pains
Before the being born-again
The Serpent was a crafty devil indeed
Tempting you with what you'd always wanted
But you were already a bad, bad seed
Self-made and hellfire-haunted
Before the nimbus-crown
Before the Beatific Vision
There's the falling down
And the perdition
Trace it all back to that garden
Mischief and metaphor
Fatal slip and allegory
Or a pear tree, nothing more
Before the nimbus-crown
Before the Beatific Vision
There's the falling down
And the perdition
© 2012 Lacie Mangels / Scott Swartz
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
6. |
||||
Augustine - II. Abyssinia to Rome
Augustine was a mama's boy
She followed him most everywhere
Over the barren desert
Upon the salty foam
But her Gus was such a wild child
And so easily beguiled
By all the lusty gals from
Abyssinia to Rome
He ate, drank, and was merry
Till he joined the monastery
And never came back again
And never came back again
Augustine had a paramour
Who bore for him his only son
But Mama said to marry
And he couldn’t tell her no
So, he put away his mistress
And sent her, with a last kiss
Packing back to Africa
Her shattered heart in tow
He ate, drank, and was merry
Till he joined the monastery
And never came back again
And never came back again
He had one prayer to his God
Betwixt the femmes fatales
And coy coquettes:
Lord, make me chaste-- but, O, not yet...
The wenches wept
And the barmaids mourned
But the mother welcomed
The prodigal back home
He ate, drank, and was merry
Till he joined the monastery
And never came back again
And never came back again
© 2012 Lacie Mangels / Scott Swartz
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
7. |
||||
III. Salted Earth
Don't put me away
I've stayed with you all this time
What have I done to you?
What is my crime?
Once I was your flower
Once I was your branch and root
Now I'm the bitter taste
And the forbidden fruit
I'm not your wife
I'm not respectable
But you were my only one
Bone of my very bone
Don't put me a-way
To Carthage you came
Burning, but not consumed:
Pomegranate tongues of flame
Saffron acacia blooms
And I was that fire
I held you within my arms
Like imperfect matter
Melded with flawless form
I'm not your wife
I'm not respectable
But I gave the whole of me
All of my flesh and blood
Don't put me a-way
A man sees a good thing
Carefully weighs its worth
Tears it asunder
Plunders and salts the earth
Leaves it laid open
Arid and bare and browned
I was your good thing
I was your fertile ground
Don't put me a-way
Don't put me a-way
© 2012 Lacie Mangels / Scott Swartz
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
8. |
Augustine - IV. Fall
03:08
|
|||
Augustine - IV. Fall
Every empire falls
And the strong grow frail
Spirit rises-up
But the corpus fails
Vandals breach the gate
Penetrate the wall
Laying waste to all
That's perishable
Melt away the dross
But the Good remains
This, the crucible
These, the purgatorial flames
Well, it doesn't work
And it isn't sure
Myth and paradox
Make the path obscure
Every empire falls
And the strong grow frail
Spirit rises-up
But the corpus fails
Mortify the flesh
Burn away the shame
This, the crucible
These, the purgatorial flames
Jilted companion
Blest mother and lost son
I have loved myself
More than anyone
I have loved myself
More than anyone
Before the nimbus-crown
Before the Beatific Vision
There's the falling down
And the perdition
© 2012 Lacie Mangels / Scott Swartz
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
9. |
Scarce
03:07
|
|||
Scarce
Someone’s locked me in my own heart
And swallowed the key
Vestigial chambers beating still,
but futilely
And you’ve become a vacant stare
A vanishing man
A fragile thing deprived of light
and oxygen
Making yourself so scarce
Barely heard, rarely seen
I’m tired of the slow ascent
The letting of blood
This sublimating baseness into
outward good
I’ve been waiting on a new self
To crawl out of me
And into you, to know you through and thoroughly
But you make yourself so scarce
Barely heard, rarely seen
So scarce I can discern only
The partway and the in-between
Should I make myself a lamb?
A blemishless dove?
A docile paragon of sacrificial
love?
But is it even possible to
live on martyrdom?
To give and to give
without taking some?
To give and to give without
taking some?
To give and to give?
So, you’ve become a vacant stare
A vanishing man
A fragile thing deprived of light
and oxygen
Making yourself so scarce
Barely heard, rarely seen
So scarce I can discern only
The partway and the in-between
Only the partway and the in-between
© 2012 Lacie Mangels
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
10. |
Stay, Genevieve
03:00
|
|||
Stay, Genevieve
It began with a kiss from her
sister Beatrice
He had driven her home at Genevieve's
own insistence
But pent-up tensions, common complaints
The lilt of her laugh to the radio's strains
Crescendoed on to passions' confluence
And the inevitable consequence
He had sworn to himself, on the skies and
on the seas
But the promise he made was no less
mutable than these
He couldn't quit it for goodness' sake
Couldn't break free of the insatiable ache
Still, it's a reason if it's no excuse
We choose only what we cannot refuse
Gen kept the porch-light dimly lit
Met him, winsome at the door
And quieted her questions
She had little indiscretions
of her very own
But Beatrice broke, packed her bags,
resolved to leave
Penned a penitent note for her sister Genevieve
He stood licking his wounds under the courthouse colonnade
Wishing Beatrice well; wishing Genevieve
had stayed
He stood licking his wounds under the courthouse colonnade
Wishing Beatrice well; wishing Genevieve
had stayed
© 2012 Lacie Mangels / Scott Swartz
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
11. |
The Curse Of Remembrance
03:13
|
|||
The Curse Of Remembrance
The book on the bed-stand
The creak of the stair
The burl of the headboard
The lay of her hair
The circling thoughts
Enclosing your brain
The click of the deadbolt
Pulsing in your veins
A whisper, a gesture
The slightest resemblance
A last look, a first kiss
The curse of remembrance
An opening iris
A warbling wren
The scent, the sensation
Of skin against skin
The nape of her neck on
The crook of your arm
And piercing unrest of
The ringing alarm
A whisper, a gesture
The slightest resemblance
A last look, a first kiss
The curse of remembrance
Wake-up, wake-up:
You can never go back
The moment it's pictured
The memory wanes
The imagery fades and cracks
The woman beside you
Stretches and stirs
The motions may move you
But the body’s not Hers
You listen for day-sound
As swift-shifting shapes
Fall, shadowing over
Your way of escape
A whisper, a gesture
The slightest resemblance
A last look, a first kiss—
A last look, a first kiss
The curse of remembrance
© 2012 Lacie Mangels / Scott Swartz
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
12. |
A Little Sad
04:33
|
|||
A Little Sad
Everything is just a little sad
There in Berlin, out here in Leningrad
Shuddering and starved; twenty-below
Burned-out, beleaguered; barefooted
in the snow
I'd give-up the fight; quit this damned war
Find me a bed, a girl, and an open door
We'd have a drink, or maybe two or three
But it could not be as it used to be
They set me to march, gave me a pair of boots
And hateful ideas, spewed-out in absolutes
I need a reason not to be gone
And I need a cause to hang
my life upon
I'd give-up the fight; quit this damned war
Find me a bed, a girl, and an open door
We'd have a drink, or maybe two or three
But it could not be as it used to be
Have I missed the day?
Have I missed the trumpet-sound
When we'll be raised
Up from the foetid ground
To sing a new song, make reverie from regret?
Water to good wine, plowshares from bayonets?
What have we done? What has become of us?
Nothing is bright; nothing's euphonious
I'd give-up the fight; quit this damned war
Find me a bed, a girl, and an open door
We'd have a drink, or maybe two or three
But it could not be as it used to be
We’d sing a new song,
make reverie from regret
Water to good wine,
plowshares from bayonets
Everything is just a little—
Everything is just a little sad
A little sad, a little sad
© 2012 Lacie Mangels / Scott Swartz
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
||||
13. |
Player Piano
03:22
|
|||
Player Piano
Clear your head; dry your tears
When you're older, have a beer
Sometimes that's all it takes to cure
a case of woe
Baby, I'm at your beck and call
Oh, no, it's no trouble at all:
I'll be your dumb waiter
and your player piano
I hear the future's looking grand
Just what we'd always imagined:
Cryogenics, flying cars,
and Esperanto
There'll be no aggression or guns
No bureaucrats or bad intentions
We'll all have dumb waiters
and player pianos
Conception on to terminus
Proto- to Palingenesis
I loved you when
I love you now
I'll love you then
I can't say what tomorrow holds
You may die young: you may grow old
But, either way, you'll fade and flourish,
ebb and flow
You'll take a chance; you'll make a wish
You'll be lit-up and then extinguished
And where it goes from there, well,
Heaven only knows
But, Babe, I'm at your beck and call
Oh, no, it's no trouble at all:
I'll be your dumb waiter and
your player piano
© 2012 Lacie Mangels
(Filament Glow Music ASCAP)
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Prairie Rehab, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp