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Songs written by Reid, tinkered by Schooner ©Reidsong, BMI

Hold on too Tight (2007)
Carrboro 

You moved to Carrboro so you could find
Places to go that were not so unkind.
Those black, angry men that would eat you alive
They ate up your brain, so you left them behind.
Hanging out with every boy in town,
Some won’t mind, and some will feel let down.
Did you wonder how they live without you?
You said ’I love you’ without thinking twice,
I knew I didn’t but thought it was nice.
Right through your eyeballs I saw our demise
Twisting and certain as ebony skies.
Flaking out on everyone around,
Some won’t ask, but some will talk about,
What it is that eats your conscience out.
As you wander all around the town here.
With nothing to lose and nothing to fear.
I guess some you win, and some you did.
You move much better when you can’t hide.
You look content when you’re open wide.

Pray for you to die
You said tonight
That God was on our side
So I prayed for you to die.
& I apologize
The truth forgot to hide.
And I prayed for you to die.
I had a dream
You were a witch it seemed.
And I tried to catch your eye
You spent the night
A spell book by your side,
That I prayed you wouldn’t find.
Our minds all full of books and stories, littered and abound,
But what’s never seen or heard can never get to spread around.
Darling I’ve tried
To get you off my mind
So I prayed for you to die.
So many times
I thought the end was nigh
And I prayed for you to die.

There’s Enough to do
When we had it out it lightninged,
And the fires that lit burned out too.
And we leveled out that place,
And the earth it burned till spring came through.
Well I think there’s enough to do.
We clamored to the ceiling,
And the hammers went with teeth and nails,
And we never missed a beat.
And the house went up in a day or two.
Well I think there’s enough to do.

Tears in your ears
You just sat there thinking.
There’re tears in your ears.
That echo through hollows
And swallow the years,
And fill from the bottom
As you well up with fear.

You’re barely awake there,
With hair in your hands,
The bottles and pieces
Of rusted out cans,
Were caught and collected
But sat there with your plans.
The buckets you dug up
With shovels and cheers,
Were placed during weeks that
The leaks sprung up here,
The dancing of droplets
On old tin roofs 
Disappear.

Leaving your room

Leaving your room
Could be the luckiest thing,
Even this tomb,
Fills with flowers today,
The hooks that hold you
Seem scattered today,
The hacks in this room
Are hopeless and grey
They’re looking away,
At codes there eroding what you came to say.
Leaving your room
Could be the luckiest thing
Leaving this tomb
With a hope and a ray,
The light isn’t too
Bright to burn or defray,
The backs there turn blue
Along with everything,
And don’t look the same
As those that were there when the bottom was scraped.
And all of the money and land
It bought you a brand
Of happiness you couldn’t keep
And you lost your sleep
In the deep that conditioned your doom
And all this will loom
Leaving your room…
And looking away,
For anything you bought but never could change.

Married 

Dredging up all of these to see,
Yeah, I think that it’s still got me.
Constellations were laid upon,
Winter clothes barely made it on.
Now you’re married.
Saw her once outside of a dream.
And the bottom fell out it seemed.
And distractions came pleasantly.
And they always seemed so empty.
And I carried these.
Sought but never saw anyone.
Caught a cold I couldn’t outrun.
Would have thought that these stories were trite.
Then the spell nearly took my life.
And I carried these
And I buried these
But now you’re married.

They always do!
Your necktie’s on too tight to tell it’s wearing you.
You’re never home but there is something eating you.
Luck lost its tune,
And so did you.
The lamp that’s by the bed is looking down on you.
You chase your wired eyes and open your mouth too.
Landlocked and light,
You’re losing time.
You’re kicking off your shoes, your feet are dirty too.
The friends you keep you think are doing this to you.
Lit up and blue,
They slept till noon.
They always do.

I would tell you that I’m stuck
All the things that we have ever said
And the things that stick inside my head,
I would rather fuss and fuck
Than to tell you that I’m stuck.
I took all the blame and went to bed.
And we tried to tame,
But started up the same damn game,
I took all the blame and went to bed.
Stole the sheets that tangled round my legs,
Stole the bones and peddled them like pegs.
All the looks and all the luck,
Like the wings that you dug up,
Littered books and pages that you read.
But we tried to tame,
And started up the same damn thing,
Dropping names and playing games instead.

Ominous bird

After we opened the door,
We stayed around and just laid on the floor,
Whispering phrases that laziness raised but would not say what for.
After the luck had been spent
We stumbled out of the room we’d been sent
All of the world filled with wide open caverns and broken intent.
I was the sound of a surfacing fish and
You were an ominous bird.
Hours and words spent attending to herons and endings on
Water where nothing was heard.
And I bathed in the light where you were,
And nothing was heard.
Dangled by lines that we cast,
Out on a pond that is growing up fast,
Bringing the snakes with the grass till the last water turns into gas.
Clouds crept up like silent hands,
They opened a faucet that covered the land
We scattered off through the puddles so baffled, befuddled we drowned.
You were the sound of a surfacing fish and
I was an ominous bird
Hours and words spent attending to herons and endings on
Water where nothing was heard,
And I flew over to where you were,
But nothing was heard.

Hospital floor
In a hospital open floor
Where the nurses are waiting for
Carbon images on the door,
Of some people you never saw.
And the smell of the hallway fills
In your head there is death and wills
And you hold off the heat and chills.
While the doctors keep running round.
If you laid down here some would agree
You are more fit to stay here than leave.
In a room there you couldn’t believe,
You were born but were never cut free.
Lay here and fend for your own
I may not keep you warm.
Born in a hail filled rainstorm
Under a stained filled form.
Dressed in dumb luck you wore
Proud like a birth-marked fore.
And the thoughts that you couldn’t kill
And the simple things you can’t feel,
And the laughter you couldn’t hear,
Are leaving with the year.
If you laid down here…

Strange alibis

Days that were filled with our insolent eyes all that fill up our sides of the will to decide and again in your arms going out of the storm feel the slight though we didn’t go higher.  Do what reciprocates into the rift of the light you would bend and bloom in.  Strange alibis moving out of the race you were welled up, and you couldn’t tell I believe all the wires burrowed in your veins you will grow to hate.

Now time is stained all the fillers and things that have cramped up your arms you’ve no will to dissuade in the rays and the air you almost cannot wait you imagine a time you cease to hesitate.  How many hours can you disguise you see eyes that you cannot outwait.  Fate and the use of the brands and obtuse burning cancers that hang looking up to the skies while the barbed wire fence that you live in keeps you awake.

Ladybug

I will never be alone.
Laid down in the open road,
Laid there till the night got cold.
I held you up and we,
Stopped the flood from flowing so hard.
I took you by the hand
And walked all around the broken damn,
And talked about love. 
I saw you late one night,
My head was full, my legs were light.
I wished with all my might,
I wished our veins could give us flight,
And take us above. 
A ladybug in flight
Stopped to land one lonely night.
Well baby, we might fight
And we might die, or hold on to tight.
So open your lungs.

Rocky P (2006)
Make me mad

Lays on the grass, down on the ground
just to see you.
You’re gone, you’re gone, head in the sand,
it’s Autumn I guess.
With leaves all around, everything’s falling here too.
Riddled and mused, with nothing to lose,
what could I do?
You cannot make me mad,
You cannot make me sad,
But you do anyway. 
How did you ever get me to pay full price for this?
Was it a hook that I took or a bite that I bit?
Or did it work out too well all the hell and the shit,
or did the joke that you choked on have malice in it? 
Your hair pressed down, your headphones sit
I bought a pair and they don’t fit.

Nothing’s Changed.

Well, we’ve taken enough this year.
I’m amazed at how you smile,
As if nothing’s changed.
Persevering so pleasantly,
In an iridescent light,
Just trying to be bright.
Fortunate how you found the shore,
And how I’ll be out to sea for many more.
Wondering just how long it takes
And all the feelings your mind creates,
It’s getting late.
There was dew falling on the grass,
There were cars on the road we passed,
So very fast.
There were pillows and cloudy stars,
Doesn’t matter where we are,
I’ll take my car.
Like to see how the road will be
Like the pavement or like the sea,
To hold or breathe.

Normal Day
Well I woke up today, and got my bearings straight,
And found my body painted hues of black and blue
I couldn’t even move, my muscles sore and bruised
From bouts of overuse and atrophy to boot.
I want a normal day
But I think I’m running late,
Telling these half sedated
Stories of my fate.
As I tore from my sleep, the whole thing dizzying,
Yelling throughout the dream, I woke and tried to scream.
I couldn’t even speak!
Was quiet for a week,
With laryngitis and exhaustion taking heed.
Well I’ve been up too late
To make sense of this day
And make these stories go
In any certain way.
Have a painted line
Lead you till you find a way.
Move your bones and speak
Till your joints don’t squeak or break.

The Return of Jules Verne

I was on the bottom of the ocean where I found a bone and searched from what it might have come the rain was making circles on the surface where you might have gone the sunlight was refracted rays and I was seeing everything through eyes not made for salty waves and maybe where they end and fade are places where I might have gone and stayed.

The ballad of Rocky P
Leave from the place you hide,
And take to the trail you find.
Don’t settle down.

3x4 (2006)
Indian sun burn

Colored blue jeans were all you care about
But age you can’t wash out.
Summer shoes have worn out, dead leaves and doubt
Are bringing winter out.
As an Indian sun burns up the past
These codes become old hat.
And the people relax and work goes faster
When prudence skirts disaster.
Oh the movers were all that we could see
And change distracted apathy.
You were losing your sight with age and might
And patience burned out bright.

Hollows and wet snow
I’ve hated you for awhile my dear.
I’ve felt this way for many years.
I’ve dug around and felt this fear.
Moving with ghosts that hold me near.
Bad luck and bad arteries beating slow
With medicine to keep the pressure low,
And these old veins are stinted hollow.
And they can’t keep you from growing cold.
I’m running out of things to do,
And I’m moving on instead of you.

Birds and other creatures 

There were birds and other creatures in the clouds.
There were harbingers of evil all around.
There were knights we always longed to see.
There was callousness and apathy there too.
There were many folks with stories no one knew.
And the funny thing was these were true.
There were loves there much too beautiful to end
They drew blood and there were wounds that had to mend.
None of this was done deliberately.
From the start of all that echoes and carries,
From the hours that the clocks hung patiently,
Have you waited all along for me?
Have you waited far too long for me?
Well, you’re free.

You forget about your heart (2004)
My friend’s band 

My friend’s band is better than mine but no one goes to see him play,
We go to watch him half the time and stay until it gets too late.
Some are fun and some are fine and some you shouldn’t have to pay,
But mostly what they do for me... 
Let’s say the purpose is you’ve already promised yourself,
Say that it’s all just a matter of personal health.
Call it a letter delivered by somebody else.
Caught there you stand with your hands shaking like shifting land. 
Just to start I don’t like the way you corner yourself.
It’s not just the way that you dust off the books on your shelf.
You can call it a work or a lyric, a statement or
Hell, you can string your demands out and sink in a scene filled with… sand. 
It’s mostly what they do for me...

Days undercover
Days undercover
we carried on,
stones thrown and numbered
were wished upon. 
We held a timer
in each clinched palm.
We led each other,
time led us on.

Trains and parades
I hope that this will burn
For now and then return.
And if your heart breaks, and then bleeds and churns
With larks and locusts, does it mean you learn?
I hope these feathers grow
And I hope these winds don’t go.
And if the storm breaks, the bellows and moans
Of trains and parades linger like a ghost.

We let the cat out

I didn’t want to be around, and then I found you on the ground.
I would have rather let you down.
I didn’t want to leave a doubt, I would have rather asked you out,
Then it would be and not about.
I didn’t want to make a sound, I was as quiet as a mouse,
We let the cat out of the house.

Long, long time
It’s been a long, long time.
And my heart’s not been with you.
But I guess it’s been where it had to.
I know it’s been a long time,
And you’re with another guy.
But I guess that I still had to try.
You should know.
That I’m wishing on a feather that I am sending to you.
Girl I know you.
And you know me too.
And I guess the hearts they wrote about were true.
Take it like a chance.
Hold it in your hands.
It will never ever stop on you.
You should know.
That I’m wishing on a feather that I am sending to you.

Open door
Talk for hours like a French ambassador.
A leaking sink a weeping drink drips on the floor.
A sudden rumble, then the slamming of a door.
A sinking feeling disappearing with the roar.
I know you could not drive too far then.
40 hours and a place down by the shore.
Another sting, another thing left to ignore.
A sleepless light is leaving imprints on you more
Than you would like to say but you’re an open door. 

 Stunts and Showmanship and Codes

I came over in the dark.
I was saying things and
some had many meanings.
Black and broken all apart.
Pounding out the cobwebs
may have made more problems.
And we might have started
What we might depart but
You forget about your heart.
Analyzing every part.
Figured every root,
Missed the mark to boot,
Icy looks, boring books
Every place you went were hooks
Only in the dark you played a beat and stole a spark so
Stunts and showmanship and codes what you thought of art.
You forget about your heart.

This machine’s running out 

Cheers to the past
gone at last.
Try not to pretend
that it never ended.
Don’t make me love you again.
Fortunes and forecast
foretold a protest.
Drifted through artist,
and into the darkest.
Don’t make me tell this again.
Distorted lights
of innocent nights.
Clouded by meanest
things that were seen and
I guess this machine’s running out.