1. |
The Devil's Share
03:25
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THE DEVIL’S SHARE
We’re making so much romance
We got extra here to spare
So it hardly makes a difference
If the devil takes his share
We’re making so much love now
We put extra in the bank
And though heaven takes the credit
It’s the devil you should thank
We’re sharing so much sugar
The bees are getting jealous
Businesses are going broke
There’s nothing they can sell us
We’re planning to protract this
With some help from down below
The feds’ll try to tax this
But it’s the devil that we owe
We make each moment midnight
And hope the sun don’t notice
Though our neighbours seem indignant
Here’s a note that they just wrote us
Weeks or more we’re walled in
And we never go outdoors
And our creditors are calling
And the bailiff’s at the door
We’re sharing so much sugar
The honeybees are jealous
CNN has gone off air
There’s nothing it can tell us
Sometimes it’s sweet to occupy
These bodies we sublet
God thinks He’s the landlord
But the devil owns the debt
They say for any joy you steal
A bill is on the way
But if lawyers send the invoice
It’s the devil you should pay
Now Dante and the devil both
Provide for lovers well
They cancel fees and cut the keys
To the cooler rooms in hell
We’re sharing so much sugar
The bees are in the breadline
The taxman’s taken up the sax
And Death is missing deadlines
What started as a spark here
Now feels a lot like flame
If my kisses leave a mark here
It’s the devil you should blame
We’re making so much romance
we’ve got extra here to spare
so it hardly makes a difference
if the devil takes his share
Let the devil take his share
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2. |
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WHEN I FINALLY LEARN TO LOVE (DON’T LET IT BE TOO LATE)
I was losing my shirt
Aboard the conman’s yacht
At a table of baize by the pool
He said, “Losing is worst, but winning gets lonely
When you run out of friends you can fool”
Then he confided this guidance to me
And it stunned me to hear him say it
“Son, when you finally learn to love
Don’t let it be too late”
I caught Don Juan
With his jeans still on
In a bar watching country TV
“I’m too tired to check out the women,” he sighed,
“And now they’ve quit looking back at me”
Then he just nodded at words on the screen
I guess he preferred not to say it
Lord, when I finally learn to love
Don’t let it be too late
When I finally learn to love
Don’t let it be too late
Let it not be said when I’m stone cold dead
“He knew the word but he wouldn’t say it”
So if you know the tune, lay it down soon
If you’re feeling a prayer then pray it
Lord, when you finally learn to love
Don’t let it be too late
Another old fraud
Was getting nearer to God
Downing Scotch and recounting his crash
He said, “Do you figure there’s girls after greed
Or does love disappear with the cash?”
And then he scribbled this note on the bill
After hinting he hoped that I’d pay it
“Friend, when you finally learn to love
Don’t let it be too late”
A woman who knew me
Once promised to show me
And she taught me all night until waking
“You tell me you don’t know what love is,” she said,
“But you know this is love that we’re making”
And now every time her gift crosses my mind
I wish I could finally repay it
If I ever do learn to say the word
Don’t let it be too late
The head believes it’s the one in charge
And the heart’s a lowly driver
But when the crash comes, and come it will,
There’ll be just one survivor
On a bench in the park
As day leaned into dark
He was sitting in his famous grey suit
He’d been dead for a year but looked no worse for wear
And I said, “Leonard, what got you through it?”
He just hummed a few bars of a song,
Said “If you work out the words you can play it
And when you finally learn to love
Don’t let it be too late”
When I finally learn to love
Don’t let it be too late
Let it not be said when I’m stone cold dead
“He knew the word but he wouldn’t say it”
So if you know the tune, belt it out soon
If you’re feeling a prayer then pray it
Lord, when you finally learn to love
Don’t let it be too late
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3. |
Don't Remember Me
03:43
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DON’T REMEMBER ME
No, I don’t remember how we met
When or where or what was said
And I don’t recall just how I fell
And I don’t remember you
And I don’t recall the time or place
We first lay down and made our peace
And I won’t remember how your face
Opened like a sea
And I don’t remember you
And you don’t remember me
All the ways we loved have slipped my mind
Like the letters I forget to send
Souvenirs of grass and sand
Carried home from the sea
And I don’t remember you
And you don’t remember me
And I don’t remember why you left
When or where or what was said
And the things you felt I’ve had to guess
All these years that I’ve been free
And I don’t remember you
No, I don’t remember you
No, I don’t remember you
Do you still remember me?
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4. |
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SOMETIMES EVEN LIARS TELL THE TRUTH
When a man of his kind says the words “I love you”
You might tell yourself that’s nothing new
And when he promises that there’s no else above you
You might want to ask him for some proof
And when he makes his vows
And he tells you how
He and only he alone will do
When a man of his sort says he’ll always love you
Well sometimes even liars tell the truth
What does it mean to mean it when you’re a man like he is
What does it take to start out new?
If there’s a way to change men, girl you’ve never seen it
And there’s no telling what they’ll change into
And when he gets to pledging
And you guess he’s hedging
And not saying what he really feels for you
When a man of his sort swears he’ll always love you
Well sometimes even liars tell the truth
(I know what that’s like, babe
Trying to love in a world without proof
Trying to take it on faith when all the world’s faking
When all truth’s been taken away)
Trying to trust the right words, trying to track the lies
Is work enough for any heart to do
So many times in love, conditions will apply
Can you trust they don’t apply to you?
And when he swears he'll show you
And he claims to know you
You can’t help fearing it’s all flowing too smooth
But when a man of his kind says he'll always love you
Well sometimes even liars tell the truth
Sometimes even liars tell
Sometimes even liars
Sometimes even liars tell the truth
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5. |
2020
07:08
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2020
We’re in the future, mister, and it’s just as he forecast it
It’s each one for their ego, and our ethics are elastic
We’re living in the next phase and it’s just as he projected
The prophets’ voices fade out and their killers get elected
The new regime condemns you all, the rapists and the rapees
As you pour across our border-wall pretending you’re escapees
The new regime supplies live-stream of its latest retributions
See drone’s-eye bombings, sniper kills, see curbside executions
Assassinations, threats and coups, and ultimate solutions
For refugees, for enemies, for Cubans, Arabs, Roossians
We’ve entered the new epoch and it’s much as he foretold us
It’s Netflix while our neighbour screams and the next one over trolls us
No Christ to spoil the stoning when you’re online being hateful
And if you find a good stone, I’m sure you mean to aim well
And if a small voice whispers Maybe you yourself aren’t blame-free
You’d better holler louder or we’ll nail you to the same tree
I know some say it’s mindless
To speak of simple kindness
But the Future is our present
And nothing less than love can bind us
High time we took our countries back—back to the middle ages
When we caged whatever crossed our lines and threw away the cages
When we pried the babies from the breast, enslaved them or we sold them
We’re in the future and its fads are just as he foretold them
Lies this size quit registering on oldschool lie detectors
We’ve mined your data anyhow and we’ve paid off the collectors
This is the future, sister, and it’s just like his predictions
It’s porn flicks while in quarantine, it’s online crucifixions
I know some say it’s spineless
To speak with simple kindness
But the Future is this present
And we can’t let them define us
A poor man will work for peanuts—that’s advice a guy once gave me
He said it as a priest might, like he figured it might save me
Well, mister you can take your scams and shove them up your assets
We’re sick of how your futures kill in all their modes and facets
We’re in the future, sister, and it’s just as he forecast it
It’s each one for their ego, and our prospects all look drastic
We’re living in the next phase and it’s just as he expected
The singers’ voices die out and the goons get re-elected
We’re in the future, Madam, and it’s just as he foretold us
It’s like we’re Eve and Adam, living in a swampland someone sold us.
(c) 2020 Steven Heighton/Hightone Music (SOCAN/ASCAP)
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6. |
Six Months at the Worst
05:27
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SIX MONTHS AT THE WORST
They’ll give you six months at the worst
You’ll have to say you’re sorry first
“Sorry” isn’t hard, you just say everything in reverse
Your friends know lines you can rehearse
It’s nice to not get sent to jail
It’s sweet when Papa pays the bail
Bright futures like your future need not be derailed
His lawyers handle the details
She’s just a drunk girl
With no choice to refuse you
A drunk and drugged girl
With no voice to accuse you
They say she’s just a drunken girl
Passed out in her party dress and pearls
Some boys believe a drunk girl gets what she deserves
And cries for help now go unheard
She’s black she’s white she’s brown she’s native
They’ll talk about the paths she strayed off
They’ll make a list of all the drugs she should have stayed off
They’ll ask what girls these days are made of
She’s just a drunk girl
No reason to suspect you
A drunk and drugged girl
With no means to reject you
As you know . . .
Behind a dumpster you leave her crying
For all you know she could be dying
If you get caught, why you just testify she’s lying
It won’t be you the system’s trying
You’re just a drunk boy
No cop here to be your conscience
When people talk about tenderness
You suspect they know it’s nonsense
Yes you do . . .
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7. |
One Breath
05:51
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ONE BREATH
I’m just an ordinary traveller
In this world I’m weary and perplexed
I know fear’s the great unraveller
I know how many it infects
But just when it seems that even “love” is just another word
A word no better than the next
There’s one thing I always recollect . . .
There’s a certain late night languor
That your kiss alone corrects
And so this love grows ever stronger
From one breath to the next
Though strangers close their faces
And the oldest friend defects
I can sense you in the spaces
From one breath to the next
There’s a kind of code between us
That each kiss and touch encrypts
A circuit that contains us
And nothing disconnects
And this link is what sustains us
From one breath to the next
The bitters we drink daily
Leave us shattered and unsexed
But your touch can still remake me
From one breath to the next
They say we’re all born liars—
I feel I really must object
Like the fool a mad king requires
You sing truths no one expects
And with your versions I will conspire
From one breath to the next
I’ve noted your indifference
To empty things the world respects
It lives to talk, while love is just this listening
From one breath to the next
While colonels arm the children
And their researchers vivisect
And we get bilked and battered
By the usual suspects
And the haters find new ways to hate
And shatter and reject
We’ll lie down and lodge our silent protest
From one breath to the next
So stay beside this sleeper
The one your vigilance protects
Even now his love is travelling deeper
From one breath to the next
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8. |
Another Kind of Worse
04:46
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ANOTHER KIND OF WORSE
Slip a sling blade in your pocket
Pack a pistol in your purse
Bomb those Persians in their mosque or
Shoot the shooter in our church
But when it comes to the inner fight
We’re all curiously averse
‘Cause brother, we ain’t better
We’re just another kind of worse
Some say we’ll hear angel choirs
If we just outshout the haters
Out-hate far right online liars
And these fires all will fade out
But the only music I hear now
Are these sirens on the earth
And brother, hate ain’t better
It’s just another kind of worse
We nice guys love a fallen cause
World peace or Esperanto
At night we march with John Brown
In our dreams and hate Monsanto
But maybe now all this righteous rage
Is just full-speed in reverse
Yeah brother, it ain’t better
It’s just another kind of worse
Let’s drive racists back underground
Your bumper sticker said
As if a problem buried deep
Is as good as gone or dead
You promise we’ll see paradise
If we kill all the bad guys first
But brother, death ain’t better
It’s just another kind of worse.
And I accuse good folks like me
Of gloating that we’re nice
Then when you crack the surface
You find envy, fear and vice
We smile as though we like you
But our virtue`s all rehearsed
We preach on the planet while we plan out
The beach tours we deserve
Tell me, how are we a step up
From the sinners that we curse?
No brother, we ain’t better
We’re just another kind of worse
Listen brother, we ain’t better
We’re just another kind of worse
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9. |
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(Sound of humming)
(Sound of dog barking)
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10. |
Always Almost Leaving
02:53
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ALWAYS ALMOST LEAVING
We’re always almost leaving
But in the end we never part
We’re almost always leaving
Then we come back to the start
But the start is far behind us
And the end’s too hard to face
“It’s all over but the grieving”
Or so we said so many days
We’re always almost leaving
But in the end we never do
I left again this morning
Tonight I’m here with you
They say that safe in harbour
Is no place for a ship to be
But it’s rougher than an ocean here
And as deep as any sea
There’s a shore between sleep and waking
Between helplessness and power
There’s a line between whole and breaking
It can vanish in an hour
We’re always almost leaving
But in the end we never can
Last night we took two different roads
Yet we wake as one again
There’s a shore between sleep and waking
Between helplessness and power
There’s a line between whole and breaking
They’ll change places in an hour
But the days turn into decades
And that life was lives ago
Now we stand on different stages
And we improvise alone
Some see life as one long goodbye
Some hear only hello
Some say all good things must die
Some believe that they just flow
They say that safe in harbour
Is no place for a ship to hide
To wake is to feel wind fill your sails
On a course to lives untried
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11. |
New Year Song
03:25
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NEW YEAR SONG
Now I understand the altar call
I’ve been that close to dying
Now I read the rabbi’s moving lips
On the sickbed where he’s lying
And the refugee adrift at sea
When it seems no god’s replying
Repeat the call, I swear that I’ll
Come forward bent and crying
Now I know the man who turns to pills
His life left unattended
The punch-drunk boxer broods alone
He once was a contender
And another loves so deeply
She’s completely undefended
Repeat the call, I swear that I’ll
Come forward and surrender
Now I understand the priest who fears
He’s sold his flock a fable
The man who bets his hopes and debts
With no aces for the table
The girl who calms her friends with song
Though she’s scared and barely stable
Repeat the call, I swear that I’ll
Come forward if I’m able
I once believed in love received—
You’re saved by the love they gave you
Now I see it the other way—
Yeah, only love you give can save you
Now I understand the gospel choir
And the Muslim cantor’s singing
The chant of freedom marchers when
The bells of change are ringing
The sentenced one who greets the sun
Though he knows what dawn is bringing
Repeat the call, I swear that I’ll
Embrace this new beginning
Repeat the call, repeat the call
And I’ll come forward singing
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Steven Heighton Kingston, Ontario
Heighton is the author of 18 books--novels, poetry, stories, and nonfiction. He has published work in Granta, the New York Times, Tin House, London Review of Books, Best American Poetry, and many others. His first album, "The Devil's Share," produced by Hugh Christopher Brown of Wolfe Island Records, will be released April 21, 2021. ... more
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