Chimney
The autumn twilight
The masquerade
The days move forward
Thoughtless cadets on parade
Do I feel more afraid?
Than what I used to be?
Of being somebody, or nobody
A fading glint
Took me for a walk
I buttoned my coat
Though you wanted to talk
With your dissolvable salt
I know you didn’t mean to
You’re just telling the truth
The faces of strangers
The indifference of a moment
A neighborhood renting
Because they can’t own it
With their inevitable sin
The motorcyclist makes a delivery
Beside the lawn with a smoking chimney
Chimney, has a memory
Of the way things were supposed to be
Chimney, lighting up in the dying heat
With almond eyes set beside crow’s feet
The evening animates
In sashaying wind
It could be leading me further out
Or right back in
To yesterday’s hobgoblin
Everyone’s smarter than me
Monuments to efficiency
And I’m walking in a circle
To find my way home
Dimming those palaces in my mind
Where the light relentlessly shone
Upon pillars of stone
Crumbling to dust in the present
Eventually preserved in a dangling pendant
When I’m a few blocks away
It kicks back to sense
Some ideas fade
Love is permanent
For a sense of recompense
Then Chimney coughs and returns inside
Is she thinking about the one she left behind?
All content for Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review is the property of Matt Waters and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Chimney
The autumn twilight
The masquerade
The days move forward
Thoughtless cadets on parade
Do I feel more afraid?
Than what I used to be?
Of being somebody, or nobody
A fading glint
Took me for a walk
I buttoned my coat
Though you wanted to talk
With your dissolvable salt
I know you didn’t mean to
You’re just telling the truth
The faces of strangers
The indifference of a moment
A neighborhood renting
Because they can’t own it
With their inevitable sin
The motorcyclist makes a delivery
Beside the lawn with a smoking chimney
Chimney, has a memory
Of the way things were supposed to be
Chimney, lighting up in the dying heat
With almond eyes set beside crow’s feet
The evening animates
In sashaying wind
It could be leading me further out
Or right back in
To yesterday’s hobgoblin
Everyone’s smarter than me
Monuments to efficiency
And I’m walking in a circle
To find my way home
Dimming those palaces in my mind
Where the light relentlessly shone
Upon pillars of stone
Crumbling to dust in the present
Eventually preserved in a dangling pendant
When I’m a few blocks away
It kicks back to sense
Some ideas fade
Love is permanent
For a sense of recompense
Then Chimney coughs and returns inside
Is she thinking about the one she left behind?
Burnt Leaves
You never ask me to come over
When you sit at the end of the bar
With a look on your face
Like you’re watching the implosion of a star
Was it another audition
Where the casting director led you on?
Now you’re looking to score
So we can discuss the golden era past the break of dawn
I never tell you that you’re too temperamental
For such a brutal line of work
That your kindness would be better served
As a teacher or a nurse
Nor that your breakdowns amuse me
For I have seen so much worse
Beautiful minds who could have defined the times
Lost because they got sick first
Chorus
Burnt leaves
Scatter at my feet
They’ll disappear down a gutter
And life is never that neat
I feel
This forgotten cemetery inside me
And for the grace of an unknown God
I’d sleep forever beneath a white sheet
Once or twice, you’ve asked outright
Why I give a damn about you
Another anonymous Midwest actress
Probably only passing through
I never reveal
My habit for survival has left me alone
That weeks go by and you’re the only one
Who calls me on the phone
Imagine that, 20 year age gap
And I can’t even pretend to be into girls
Something else must remind me of my mother
Aside from those dark brown curls
So regular together
The waiters gave us a nickname with a ring of truth
I’m the Old Man and the Sea
You’re Betty Boop
Chorus
Well tonight, I think I got something different
To tell you
These minor defeats and indignities
Just haven’t been enough to quell you
And even if it makes you hate me,
Man its work the risk
I’m so damn tired of watching beautiful people
Who think pain and rejection make them exist
Because you’re better than this
Better than dancing on a puppeteer’s string
You might not want to hear it
But the world doesn’t need another pretty face to sing
But who am I kidding? I’ll catch the bare October moon
In the cab’s rearview once we leave this place
And we’ll wind up talking ceaselessly about Cassavetes
And Scorsese, our version of saying grace
You’ll mumble how you feel safe with me, that
I’m the closest you’ve ever had to a father
A dire warning about your destruction will linger on my lips
But I just won’t bother
Chorus
Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review
Chimney
The autumn twilight
The masquerade
The days move forward
Thoughtless cadets on parade
Do I feel more afraid?
Than what I used to be?
Of being somebody, or nobody
A fading glint
Took me for a walk
I buttoned my coat
Though you wanted to talk
With your dissolvable salt
I know you didn’t mean to
You’re just telling the truth
The faces of strangers
The indifference of a moment
A neighborhood renting
Because they can’t own it
With their inevitable sin
The motorcyclist makes a delivery
Beside the lawn with a smoking chimney
Chimney, has a memory
Of the way things were supposed to be
Chimney, lighting up in the dying heat
With almond eyes set beside crow’s feet
The evening animates
In sashaying wind
It could be leading me further out
Or right back in
To yesterday’s hobgoblin
Everyone’s smarter than me
Monuments to efficiency
And I’m walking in a circle
To find my way home
Dimming those palaces in my mind
Where the light relentlessly shone
Upon pillars of stone
Crumbling to dust in the present
Eventually preserved in a dangling pendant
When I’m a few blocks away
It kicks back to sense
Some ideas fade
Love is permanent
For a sense of recompense
Then Chimney coughs and returns inside
Is she thinking about the one she left behind?
