Over The Rhine Album

I'm happy with myself
I'm happy with myself
and I don't have what it takes to please you

I've been trying to write you a letter
I've been trying for two or three years
maybe I could just say it better
practice some in front of a mirror here oh

I've been trying to build you a heaven
crowns of thorns in Mason Jars
angels that dance on pins and needles
maybe I've tried a little too hard oh

is it because I cannot see you
that you feel so free to steal
my excess baggage full of darkness and despair
while I fumble with my locks
you're content to stand and knock
yet I know your knack for thievery is rare

do you know they call it arson
setting fires without permission
in my heart for sure and maybe elsewhere too
though your lack of inhibition
captures my imagination
I end up a wiser person thanks to you

it's coming to fruition
the sympathetic vibration
your train is at my station
within without

then there is your flare for murder
there's a dagger in the border
of your cloak and I suspect a captain's gun
as you put to death suspicions
kindly kill my fears as well
exorcise and slay the demons one by one

though I'm usually pacifistic
you are mercifully sadistic
and I didn't know that murder could be good
but the roses came crimson
springing from the prison
of the floorboards where there once were stains of blood

it's coming to fruition
the sympathetic vibration
your train is at my station
within without
it's calming my suspicion
with soothing intuition
your train is at my station
within without
within without
within without
within without

bone dry

should I never dance
like Salome danced
bathing in rain
and moonlight and flame
should I never sweat
surreal shadows
rushing through my veins
good red blood run red

bone dry

should I never speak
the wisdom of hands
should I never use
the fingers that find
should I never read
the words on my feet
leading me to you
the blind lead the blind

bone dry

always
doesn't mean anything
always
no

should I never feel
the healing you bring
take a look at me
I'm breathing, I'm breathing
should I trace a line
from lips to heartbeat
shoulder and across
to shoulder again

bone dry

always
doesn't mean anything
always
no

always
doesn't mean forever
always
no

bone dry

you are a gardener
you cultivate my soul
you water thirsty vines
that snake along my spine
in case I forget to shiver
you are a carpenter
you build the scaffolding
replace the windowpane
I see the sky again
as if I've been delivered

you are a fisherman
my weather lets you know
when and when not to wait
your hook's inside the bait
I'm wary but I swallow
you are a messenger
you bring me all the news
the kind that never lies
it's written in my eyes
you beckon and it follows

I get to be guilty

you are a singer too
carry me like a tune
I'm like a newborn child
I'm wrapped up for a while
you're swaying like a hobo
you are a circus clown
I've never laughed before
beneath your canopy
oh say a prayer for me
I want this in a photo

so be a photographer
I'm dancing naked now
across the maple floor
above the lion's roar
your pictures will protect me
you must be a scientist by now
with rumpled midnight hair
you've studied every pore
and every follicle
of my bewildered body

I get to be guilty

yours is a different light
I like my face that way
the canvas of my skin
serene and strange but true

someone's moving ‘round inside of me
someone's setting up shop where I can't see
but I'm fine
but I'm fine
in this melancholy room

someone opened up my mouth to speak
someone pulled the words back into me
but I'm fine (lie)
but I'm fine (lie)
in this melancholy room

scream like a silent movie
call off the curious fingers
feeling my heart
spring on an Arctic island
pushing against my ribcage
takes me apart
smiles on my Friday face
call it amazing grace
are you leaving so soon
I'm mad as a March hare in June
in this melancholy room

oh you can you
can you see how I've fallen
in the fog
cannot see very far
cannot see the fallen
in the fog
can you see what I see
can you see
do you wanna
you fallen
can I call you God or messiah
you know you must...
your body down

sleep baby Jane
sleep baby Jane

suicide suicide
Katie's talking suicide
homicide homicide
mama killed my man
turpentine turpentine
potion for my valentine
take a ride and take it
in a long black hearse

sleep baby Jane
sleep baby Jane

Vaseline Vaseline
Ruby's selling Vaseline
kerosene kerosene
everyone's a fetus
chamomile chamomile
someone spiked the chamomile
shake it mama shake it
it was my idea first

sleep baby Jane
sleep baby Jane
don't scream
sleep baby Jane
my baby

if you think I'm Jane
let me kiss you
if you think I'm Jane
if you think I'm Jane
let me call you an angel

are you my daddy
are you

I don't wanna cut you up
drink you from a paper cup
I don't wanna spit you out
or kick you in the shin
I don't wanna knock you down
be your mother be a clown
I don't wanna talk about
the shit you're really in
I don't wanna take a bow
no one's clapping anyhow
I don't wanna sneak around
and pray you'll understand
I don't wanna call your bluff
enough's enough
I don't wanna see you
chained up

are you my daddy
are you

I don't wanna ruffle you
cut the deck and shuffle you
don't wanna come to fisticuffs
or stick you with a pin
I don't wanna argue
hurt your pride or make you blue
your tongue is forked and clearly
there are scales upon your skin
I don't wanna help ice crack
give you a surprise attack
I don't wanna cut you slack
and watch it go to hell
I don't wanna tell you lies
like presbyterians or spies
I don't wanna see you chained up

are you my daddy
are you

don't you run away
leave me like a rainy day
I don't wanna make you stay
or stand up high above you
don't want you to see me cry
I'm just trying not to lie
I don't wanna see you chained up

fall on me
fall on me

birds of a feather and a featherless cap
poor lovers breed songs in a two-room flat
moist hands fold to pray for a painless truth
we dance on the tracks of a train called youth

truth's on the table like a toxic spill
and we wrestle in the sheets with our own freewill
if we never shake hands with a phantom called fame
I'll still have your picture in a picture frame

if you should fall
fall on me

forty-acre farm we can call our own
with a chocolate lab and no telephone
the full moon's leering in a lover's swoon
and the apple tree's swaying to a windy tune

(save me I'm falling for you)

but we won't get to heaven if we just sit still
if we don't cry murder maybe no one will
we're riding tandem down Sycamore hill
if we hit the brakes we're gonna take a big spill

if you should fall
fall on me

and if my hand were taken hold of
I'd slip away with you love
slip away with you love

June the clouds in your eyes remind me of the way I feel
June the river will rise on all the secrets I conceal
June I'm following you somehow I've fallen far behind
June lately I feel I'd rather not believe love's blind

crazy it used to be so clear
what's hazy used to be so clear
am I lazy should I swallow all this fear
crazy it used to be so

June I'm feeling so good I'd love to die here just like this
June I'm feeling so strange screams are tangled up with bliss
June when I'm afraid I find a thousand ways to laugh
June when I'm alone I forget you anyway I can

June help me help me I'm running out of things to say
June tell me tell me will he love me anyway
God look over there there's pigeons nesting on your saints
God all I can say is forgive us rather forgive me

my love is a fever
my love is a fable
my love is jazz licks
improvised by toddlers
bold Ulysses by nursery rhyme
and firelight

my love is a metamorphosis
reason cold logic
intuitively speaking
my love is syncopated
spoon-fed ignorant
well-read

my love is singular
my love is commonplace
as a gravedigger's own birthplace
my love is a medicine
feeds the sick heals the poor
turns up the volume on the blind

my word it's a trip
like a migraine
on a moving train
it parachutes aeroplanes
watch it fly

eyes soar hands clap
ears ring it's a sand trap
hair raising amazing
grey city transformations
as lips sink stomachs ache
monkeys shine fire flies
foxes trot hobs knob
porches swing brains storm
hearts attack and air supplies
heads light tails spin
steeples chase you along your chin
rock slides

out of the woods now
a virgin in buckskin
moccasins tall thin
she plays your mandolin
so maudlin you begin to spin
out of the woods now

I'll awake to find your love
falling like leaves to the ground
I'll awake to find your love
falling like leaves
you will look to find me down
upon my knees without a sound
you will look to find me down
upon my knees

then we can fling wide the gates
let go the last of our hate
then we can sigh
like the cool clear wind up high
through the sky above
then we can say we're in love

then we can rest mortal eyes
laugh as we run out of temporal breath
then we can move we can sing
we can tremble like birds
through the sky above
then we can say we're in love

Don't be bothered by the fears
I'll try to bottle them
Like my mother's perfume
She wore it only on Sunday
Kept it safe in her room
In a chest with a key
We found it anyway

Don't be bothered by the fears
They'll only join us like the sky
That blushes red tonight
And makes the wind die down
Calms the troubled sea
More out of duty than pleasure
But out of pleasure nonetheless

Your fire burns me like a favorite song
A song I should have know all along
I feel you move like smoke in my eyes
And that is why, why

Don't be bothered by the fears
That sing from my eyes like carrillon
Ringing only on Sunday
On the roof down our street
Finally over the river
Ring for you ring for me
Finally forever
It's just I never
It's just I never thought
I never thought that I could be this free

Your fire burns me like a favorite song
A song I should have know all along
I feel you move like smoke in my eyes
And that is why, why

Your fire burns me like a favorite song
A song I should have know all along
I feel you move like smoke in my eyes
And that is why, why, why, why, why
Why, why, why

Don't be bothered
Don't be bothered

Why, why, why, why, why, why
Why, why
Why, why, why, why, why
Why, why