Jason Webley Album

Beyond the song that came before
Before the song that's still to come
A stillness comes, a stillness comes
There's still, still more to come

Back in the town where we were born
Just past the corner grocery store
Down littered pathways well explored
Across the garden and through the door

Inside a box under the floor
Tucked in a long-forgotten drawer
In letters written long before
In words that ask what words are for, what these dreams are for

The morning after the downpour
An unrequested last encore
In missives sent in semaphore
To friends you don't call anymore

Between the water and the shore
Beneath the skin, outside the core
Among the virgins and with the whores
The stillness sounds its silent roar

For bodies withered, wrinkled, worn
That faith and time cannot restore
Behind the eyes you once adored
Behind the eyes you once adored

Behind the eyes you once adored
Behind the eyes you once adored

After the fire, between the wars
Inside the mind that still keeps score
Of synchronies and metaphors of patterns you cannot ignore
'Cause there will be more, yes there will be more

All through her hair and in her pores
In folds of clothing well explored
She asks you, do you still want more?
Do you still want more?

Do you still want more?
Do you still want more?
Do you still want more?
Do you still want more?

Our mother made us into swimmers
She threw her babes into this river
Full of mud and dense with weeds, a century of odd debris
We learned to fight and learned to love

Our breaths were short, we shared them with our brothers
We learned new games under the covers
How to laugh and how to grieve, we learned to trust, we learned to leave
We found this water's deeper than we'd guessed

We had learned enough ways to love
Still I don't know, mother, who we are

Our minds were sharp, our bodies burning
We gave ourselves over to learning
How to break and how to give, betrayal taught us to forgive
We stretched and soaked up everything

They taught us well, we were first in our classes
We learned to see through many glasses
How to sink and how to fly, we learned to watch each other die
My God, this course is harder than we thought

We had learned enough ways to love
Still I don't know, mother, where we are
We thought we were walking the way to love

Our mother made us into swimmers
She threw us straight into the river
Our minds were sharp, our bodies burning
We threw ourselves over to learning

Dear God, this current's stronger than we thought

We had learned enough ways to love
Still I don't know, mother, who you are
I thought I was well on my way to love

Do we have time to take a nap?
The house is on fire, the sky is falling
Baby get back, get back
This is your mother calling

Do I have time to take a nap?
The sky is on fire, the house is falling
Baby get back, get back
This is your mother calling

Do we have time to take a nap?
The house is on fire, the sky is falling
Baby get back, get back
This is your mother calling

Do I have time to take a nap?
The sky is on fire, the house is falling
Baby get back, get back
This is your mother calling

Guess you never really stuck around,
All that long anywhere.
I guess I should have known that you'd skip town.
You always did, catch me unawares.
Looking now at your debris,
These trails of paper strewn across the floor.
Towards an open door.

Look at all you've gathered, all you own,
Hold it in your hand, does it weigh more than a single feather?
If the things you feel outsmart the things you know,
It's almost time, it's almost time to go.

I don't know if you struggled at the end.
I know at times, you fought like hell.
I know that sleep was never quite your friend.
I hope that now, you're resting well.
Old band names and alma maters,
A patchwork quilt of people you have been,
Tattooed on your skin.

Think of people, places you have known,
Sculpted out of sand.
The tide's coming in and we're going nowhere.
If your feet are still in shoes that they've outgrown,
It's almost time, it's almost time to-
Think of seed you've scattered and you've sown,
All out of your hands,
Lost in the wind like a little feather,
And the things you feel outsmart the things you know.
It's almost time, it's almost time, it's almost time, it's almost time,
it's almost time, it's almost time to go.

They'll tell you they're in it for money, they will say their intentions are pure
They are scouring the room for the prettiest face in the bar
They're hungry for power, they're just picking flowers, they are looking for a war to fight
Or they just want someone, they just want someone to hold tonight

They'll say they are looking for diamonds or that they want to conquer the world
They'll tell you they're building a tower that climbs to the stars
A straight-A report card, an island, a sports car, a woman's cigarette to light
Or they just want someone, they just want someone to hold tonight

They'll say they are hungry for knowledge, they will tell you they're thirsty for God
They are combing the earth for the notes to a song, the world can all join arm in arm and sing along
They want a straight answer, they're trying to cure cancer, they are digging for the sweetest bite
No, they just want someone, they just want someone to hold tonight

They just want someone, they just want someone to hold tonight

Play the tape back, take apart just what happened in your heart
Where exactly you fell through
Now you're going to do some time, you don't know, did you cross the line?
Or did the line cross you?

And no one's going to pick you up down here
No one's going to say you're in the clear
You push, you stretch, you rend apart the edges of just what you are
And no one's going to see you disappear

Appetite has gone away, anything else you can say
Bees are buzzing around the hive
A pull-out sofa, some cheap red wine, yeah, you're going to do some time
Just get in the car and drive

And no one's going to pick you up down here
No one's going to say you're in the clear
You push, you stretch, you rend apart the edges of just what you are
And no one's going to see you disappear

He's got feathers in his pockets
He finds them lying by the side of the road
Along the train tracks, by the water
He thinks about the seed he has sown

He feels something tugging at him
That pulls him close and lets him go, he pulls it close, he lets it go
He pulls you close and he lets you go
His body's growing heavy underneath this mortal load

Raise them higher, raise them higher
These old bones just want to fly tonight
Raise them higher, raise them higher

She's got wings back behind her eyes
Some days the colors catch them, lift her off of the earth
In the morning, before the mirror
She wonders how much eggs are worth

She feels something, something breaking
That pulls her close and lets her go, she pulls it close, she lets it go
She pulls you close and she lets you go
Her lips are saying no while her body is giving birth

Raise them higher, raise them higher
These old bones just want to fly tonight
Raise them higher, raise them higher
These old bones are going to fly tonight

Raise them higher, raise them higher
Raise them higher, raise them higher

Raise them higher, raise them higher
Raise them higher, raise them higher
Raise them higher, raise them higher
Raise them higher, raise them higher, higher, higher, higher

How are you going to meet your bride when she offers you her arm?
When she breaks into your house one night and sets off the alarm?
Will you rush to embrace her or will you shrink and hide?
How will you meet your bride?

Yes, and how are you going to greet your wife when she's standing at your door?
When she comes to claim your heart, your life, your body, then still wants more?
Will she find you bearing flowers, will you greet her with a knife?
Tell me how will you meet your wife?

Yes, and how are you going to meet the one from these songs you loudly sing?
Whose bullet slips into your gun, whose finger fits your ring?
Will the place by you be waiting, is your bed already occupied?
Tell me how, how will you meet your bride?

Tell me how are you going to greet your bride?
When she's clawing at your ribcage and demands to come inside?
Will you swerve to miss her or will you collide?
Tell me how, how, how will you meet your bride?

I thought I heard someone say
You had just blown back into town
I thought you might stay away
Till it's clear

There's still this voice in my head
There's still this ghost in our bed
And there's still this song we used to play
Will we know when it's over completely?

Where are the angels now?
The feathers came drifting down
Where are the angels?
Where are the angels now?

Most of the games people play
Are fish fighting, dying, as they push their way back upstream
The water will wash the bodies away
'Till it's clear

There's still this voice in my head
There's still your ghost in my bed
And I thought I heard someone say
We won't know 'till it's over completely

Where are the angels now?
The feathers came drifting down
Where are the angels?
Where are the angels now?

Little sister, I don't know if you should look at me that way
There's a blister about to burst, only waiting for a quick, deliberate and violent touch
But oh, to resist her or to kiss her, either one feels like
They both feel like a sin

Little sister, I confess you've been present on my mind
With your mystery undressed and my heart scrubbed bare, burned clean by turpentine
Bus still she insists there are no fairy tales, we end before we start
I start to break as she fades and disappears

And oh, when I'm with her I feel so much joy and brokenness
It's hard, it's hard, it's hard, it's hard
It's hard to know how to hold
Your sister

Little sister, God, I know I shouldn't look at you this way
We have a history, it's comforting, familiar when we set the house on fire and walk away
But still, to resist her or to kiss her, either one tears me apart
A part breaks free as she fades and disappears

And oh, I am just a dumb beast, stuck here, stranded, staring at its heart
Its heart, its heart, its heart
Its hard to know how to hold
Your sister

Standing in a crowd and looking around, looking for a pair of eyes
Pair of eyes, pair of eyes that are looking back at yours
A little scared, a little proud, just a little paralyzed
Paralyzed, paralyzed

Everything you've ever felt before, everything you've ever felt and more
It's coming back again, it's coming back to you again
Let the wind blow through your door
Relax your fingers, let it fall away

Sitting around the floor, you're looking tired, you tell me that you're scared to die
Scared to die, scared to die and still a little scared to live
The little light, the little fire still there just behind your eyes
Behind your eyes, behind your eyes

Everything you've ever felt before, everything you've ever felt and more
It's coming back again, it's coming back to you again
Let the waves come through your door
Relax your fingers, let it fall away

Everything you've ever felt before, everything you've ever felt and more
It's coming back again, it's coming back to you again
Let the wind blow down your door
Relax your fingers, let it fall away

And we return to her with thirsty eyes
With history burning between our thighs
With naked longing trembling behind our smiles

We're going back to touch this hallowed land
We've got God in our hearts, we're holding gifts in our hands
And in that bag there is a loaded gun
This is a loaded gun, I've got a...

And we return, backs straight, chins high, hair shorn
We're going back to taste the grain from where our hunger was born
In bodies withered, wrinkled, worn
The framework showing through where the skin is torn

We are army ants, we are worker bees
We are salmon in the stream after years at sea
And this is blind man's bluff, but we don't need to see
Because we never miss our targets, no, we can't miss

And we return to surrender, we return to fight
To keep warm inside her beauty just another night
We're going to turn back the tape to where the music starts
We're going to feel the cost of living in our fingers and hearts

We're going back to the place where the river begins
We going to break until the tears have burned away the sins
We're want to lose ourselves and learn to make love again
We here to finish what we start, we're going to rip this all apart

We're going to press against the sky until we see our mother's face