KITE • GRAVITY
Lyrics: Michael Koep
Music: Monte Thompson
©1994-2012 Claytone music, BMI
Kite
There are times that I can swoop and glide
With my tail sweeping the air, laughing out loud–
At the ground.
Sometimes I can tickle the clouds with color,
Brilliant as a sunset gleam, sailing on high–
Spirit light.
Oh –it’s the way
Though like everyone I’m tied
Tied up and down.
no wind, no flight,
no love, no life.
Stringing me along, Inspiration so sweet, so quick-
You can reel her in and let her out, but without her touch
Life don’t mean much.
In time we will find just who holds the strings
Who makes us fly formations, and leads us to temptation
In the night
In the day
In the sun
In the sky
I’m flying–
No strings attached. . .
A Is An A
Would you believe if I told you,
You were lied to?
Could you conceive that none of this
Were ever true?
Would it be hard to change the way
You are thinking?
Even if, even if
There was nothing else you could do?
What if I said you were dying?
What if you were the mystery
And something I said was a clue?
I could see where you might discover
Some sort of beneficial quality–
That I might just learn back from you.
a is an a
for your dreams
a is an a
is all this means
a is an a
so many possibilities
a is an a
feel what I mean!
What if I said you were dying?
Would you change your path for fear
Of never reaching the truth?
I can see where you might discover
Some sort of beneficial quality
That I might just learn right back from you.
The Evening News
Here in this barricade
Behind cathode barbed wires
And roaring static fires
I can feel the fear more clearly.
Behind this mask I wear:
A face feeling foul
Drawn into a hideous scowl
I can feel the fear more clearly.
And when it springs from the shadows
I have a remote control–
Like a shark lurking mad about my cage
So safe, everything is under control.
I have a remote control to control you–
Calm comfort before the TV,
Body counts keep the score
In some distant war.
I can feel the fear more clearly.
With this weapon I bear,
Though its use I restrict
But oh, the pain I could inflict–
I can feel the fear more clearly.
And when I can’t handle anymore
I can turn my cheek and pretend
You’re just a nightmare, just a show
When the tears sting my eyes…
I have a remote control to control you—
Spellbound
Frightened eyes scanning hard front lines,
Lonely bloom reaches up through the battle field.
Parting the armies with petals rich
As white surrender,
Bloodless truce flags,
On high!
Cracking gunfire! Tearing gunfire!
Shatters all hope and faith and love in our minds.
Bodies fall down,
Blood spills to the ground,
The flower and its root
Trampled under foot,
Breathe deep–I start to get spellbound…
All for what?
What for all?
Old declare,
Young men fall.
At the end
Hewn and cut,
Are the boys
All for what?
Can’t believe
What I see
This bloody
Gravity...Lovely child flutters dreamily
Among lamps pale with light neutral hues.
Picking the flowers, fingers squeeze
Her gaze enamored,
Captured tiny eyes,
In mine!
Cracking gunfire! Tearing gunfire!
Terror quickly comes coldly blinding her eyes.
As the guns pound,
She falls to the ground,
The flower and its root
Trampled underfoot,
Breathe deep–
I start to get spellbound…
In her eyes
Are the tears
That will stay
For long years.
In her heart
Stays the dread.
In her soul
Stay the dead.
Can’t believe
What I see
This bloody
Gravity...Summer days quickly pass away,
Candle lit nights spent in safety’s arms.
Staring out over glasses high,
Our soused communion,
Someone turns on the TV.
Cracking gunfire. Tearing gunfire.
That bouquet looks smart atop the television.
Pour a drink
And switch it off.
The flowers and the wine
Make our lives so fine.
Breathe deep–We’ve become spellbound…
Somehow we
Forget thee,
Or we don’t
Choose to see.
Far away
We’ll remain
From the strain
From the pain.
Can’t believe
What I see
This bloody
Gravity...
Sunshine Blue
I think I’ll take the day
Inside to watch the rain
Outside my window,
As the wind blows.
I’m looking for a frame
Of mind that just might
Define some sort of sunshine,
As the wind blows.
If I can find it here, I can find it anywhere.
When they have you running
For some leech like cause,
Pulling you–
Controlling you–
And like a prowler’s search light
They can only find some faint trace of strain
Against their ways–
Against their praise–
And they’re changing you–
And tearing you–
If I can find it here, I can find it anywhere.
I guess I must take the day
Inside to feel the pain
Of another business day,
As the wind blows.
I suppose it’s normal to think
That everyone is having
A better time than me,
As the wind blows.
If I can find it here, I can find it anywhere.
And when the end seems so near
There is only one thing I can rely
But they pull me–
Separate me–
From you…
Solace is so close and so forgotten
When the weight of the world, it seems,
Throws you–
Hurts you–
Sunshine blue–
Sunshine blue–
For me and you.
If I can find it here, I can find it anywhere.
Talis Trumpery
Talis Trumpery (Bravado Solitaire)
What’s the use in explanation
My friend, my hurting friend?
Something slapped its gaze upon you,
Licked its vile tongue across you,
What good can words lend?
You were followed through the wood?
Like a stranger, like and invader?
Some unconscious voice spoke to you–
In the heat of confusion you knew–
And when you turn to catch a glance–
Things can only get stranger
…and stranger.
Lots of green, thick suffocating couches–
Microwaves, cigarettes and coffee machines…
So we’ll go no more-a-roving
And we’ll calm that spirit down.
Take steps that are much more tender,
Instead of up and over we’ll go around.
But you must spit out the butt-ends of your past
If you expect to last.
There have been days clearer than these
My friend, my hurting friend.
I recall nights with you in lamplight–
You could always renew my sight
Of just how much love to send
…love to send.
Much you’ve seen–Mad, horrifying moments,
Bravado solitaire with your back against the wall…
Tremor
I.
Gnawing the shore–
A dream dying to ebb.
Amidst the sun and sound
We’ve all been around to that side.
The side we fear the most,
The side to build on.
We’ve all dreamt here
On this ledge
Overlooking the sea…
This day–
Shout your passions
This day–
Scream your decisions
This day–
Move with creation.
From where I stand
It’s a wave of endless retreat.
A dream woven of means and ends
And we’ve all been around to that side.
The side we fear the most,
The side to build on.
We’ve all dreamt here
On this ledge
Overlooking the sea…
II.
Advisory–keep your head in the lanes where
No one can touch you.
And if you find hell there, further on there must
Be something true.
Curiously, it’s a war between
You and them.
And if you find loss, something inside dying
Like a sword running through–
This day…
Scream.
Laughable
Laughable
I’m just keeping the situation light,
Breaking the ice with a smile.
Turning chaos to comedy,
Turning mountains to mole hills
With a smile.
Shy
A girl from Seattle Washington
Took a sip from her coffee,
Mesmerized by the rhythm of the drops in the street.
The rain filled the sea.
Her eyes were hazel, shy, innocent
Like a deer frightened to flee.
I watched her from across some cafe tables as
The rain filled the sea.
Rushing down a crumbling sidewalk
Rivulets of rain.
Shadows dripping--black coats running
Through umbrella traffic.
It seems, the rain fills the sea.
Time goes by so fast my love
How I long to see you dance
If I could only introduce myself
This is what I’d ask:
Will you come with me my love?
I’ll take you to the sun
And we will dance these nasty clouds away
And stop the rain from filling the sea.The girl slipped a coin down on the table
Stood, and turned away from me.
Do I stop her? do I call her? does she know?
The rain fills the sea?
(moments later,)
A girl from South California
Took a sip from her coffee
Mesmerized by the rhythm of the drops in the street.
The rain fills the sea.
So many people rushing past me
Time slips through my hands.
I must be missing something for I
Just can’t, I just can’t, I just can’t say...In Sum
The sun is upon the snow
And it’s flashing across my window.
I’m sitting in the laundry room,
Listening to the dryer hum
And it feels like sleep is creeping in.
Goose bumps when the air is cold,
Look at all these clothes to fold.
I’m sitting in the laundry room
Attempting to put things in sum
And these silly little visions keep marching in.
I’m wanting my robe of expression around you-
Around your world.
I’m longing to make you sigh– make you high!
I want to take you up with me
I want to take you up with me.
That’s all I’m trying to do.
There’s always more to come–
Until the cycle is done.
I’ve slid into a dreamy stare
Hearing the whir of tumbling air.
I think of you my dear
Dressed in so many ways,
Showing me you through fabric and hue.
If I were to allow you to probe
Through the lions and witches in my wardrobe,
Could you find your way to stay?
Would I still be the only one?
Or at least until our cycle is done?
This is me in costume, this is me in the nude,
This is me smiling, this is me when I’m blue.
This is what makes me feel
And this is what makes me
numb...
Air
Barely moving I suck in the air
That feeds me, that keeps me alive with you.
It seems I’m slipping– A final door through.
When I have fears that I may cease to be,
Sickly slumbering, longing to remain,
I inhale your vital spark–slowing the pain.
And now you lean over my motionless form
Straitening my gown with a tearful smile,
As if I were leaving–for just a while–
And you say:
Look at that clear patch of sky
And the leaves falling with the snow.
There down the lane, by the bridge
We never crossed no, we never had the time,
To find the places that it goes...Now the shroud stifles my sight, still I see
You slumped down by my side. I want to reach
Oh God–reach out to you!
But the layers of air are now so vast
I am a draft a ghostly breeze,
Cannot touch, cannot hold, cannot breathe.
Look at that clear patch of sky.` It was the weight
The strain
The string
Holding me down.
The gravity
The life
The loss
Holding me down.
I will love you forever
Forever love you...look to that clear patch of sky
For spring shall overcome the snow.
There down the lane, by the bridge
You’ve crossed it and one day I will follow you
To find the places that it goes…