Lyrics

Alexa Woodward Lyrics
Album: "Speck"
listed in order of appearance:

1. SPOON
If the moon were a spoon
you could burn from the bottom,
I would have to cast the moon away
It's not that I don't like her
It's just that I want you
to stay with us for a few more days

You can die without dying,
You can die without trying
But why would you go out that way?
Why would you go out that way,
That way?
There's a little secret
by the door, by the door
If you make it that far,
You might as well take a little bit more
On the other side, A little light/
You can see it through
The floorboard
One soft thing to believe in
One more day here for being
"No, no, no!" Cried the sand to the sea
You can go, but please don't leave
You can go, but please don't leave
You got a dragon
who holds all your secrets,
But he can't take your pain away,
Pain, it doesn't go away
We just give it different shapes
You can die without dying,
You can die without trying,
But why would you go out that way?
Why would you go out that way,
That way?
Bridge
Chorus


2. JIMMY


Jimmy was a wayward man
Laying in a white linen bed
Broke his back in a rooftop fall
Doing so much blow
He couldn't see at all
He told me about the girls he'd had
Elaborate plans to sneak them in
I'd play along and leave behind
Safety precautions
Tuesdays at the old folks home
A man would play the accordion
And all the ageless skeletons
Yearned to learn how to die young
I wish I had known him when
He was still too young for sin
I'd have taken all his kindling
Kept it dry for burning
Pulp fiction littering his bed
Lonesome to the point of death
Bright in all his tiresome mess
Never one for repentance
They found an empty bible by
The bed, just after he died
He'd carved away the book of psalms
To his his medicine
Just in time for the good lord's plan,
Jimmy took to the road again
With an empty bible,
As a wayward man


3. SPECK


I got a darkness
So rich and so fine,
Swallow the world
As if the world
were mine,
Open the broken
Window, and I leave
A speck of blood
For the birds and the bees
A speck of blood
For the birds and the bees
Got one taste of sorrow
And one taste of fear
Left them for you and
Now we're laying here
Martyrs for honesty,
Offering up
A speck of blood
For the birds and the bees
A speck of blood
For the birds and the bees
Chorus:
On and on the road she goes
Her secrets, even time don't know
Time, time her paramour
Will take his weight in gold
He'll take his weight in gold
Swing low the chariots
I'm an Iscariot
Never so lonesome
As I was today
Give me a kiss,
A nonsensical wish, just
A speck of blood
For the birds and the bees
A speck of blood
For the birds and the bees
When I am standing
at gates I don't recognize
Clothed like an emperor,
Wearing my secrets,
What kind of mercy is there
For a thief?
A speck of blood
For the birds and the bees
A speck of blood
For the birds and the bees
Chorus


4. WINDOW


She leaned out of the window
holding a cigarette
she had a lust for jumping
but thought better of it
down upon the street below
a silence deafening
the noise all around was so loud, so loud
her blood was melancholy
Oh morning, a bitter thing
a night without a single dream
now these songs, they only come in sleep
and a nightmare is better than nothing
chorus:
In a little window where you place
your burnt offerings
I am just a thief bringing my poem,
and my body
He sang to her of Caroline,
the daughter of a miner
it cut so soft when he reached the line
where sunlight walked beside her
By the pigeons in the park,
the sun, it speckled bright
he told her tales of light and dark
and music lit the night
Oh morning, a bitter thing
a night without a single dream
now these songs, they only come in sleep
and a nightmare is better than nothing
Chorus


5. BOSTON


If you got a light
I got a smoke
this could kill us both
Where is your art
is it buried in your heart
if not, it'll kill us both
Bridge:
should we go up to the roof,
not knowing what's in store,
laying on our backs until we find
a couple stars above New York
chorus:
On the bus to Boston
with the scarlet turning leaves
I resolved to make my bed
with my better history
The old man on the six train
wearing vintage Russian
military regalia
you thought he was a guardian angel
Bridge:
should we go up to the roof,
not knowing what's in store,
laying on our backs until we find
a couple stars above New York
Chorus


6. MARY


Mary was born 
in a southern snowstorm
In the mountains of North Carolina
her mother all alone in a little
cabin in the woods
in the morning when the storm subsided
miss Lola Naomi fox came by
to find her there
all wrapped up tight and fast alseep
It's a strange thing
for a storm like that
to blow through in the month of march
but Mary brought a sweet spring breeze
I met Mary some eighty years later
at a party in south carolina
where she wore a white halo of hair
she smiled at me and told me
Leo Tolstoy learned to ride a bicycle
when he was in his seventies
We spoke of KierkegÄrd and Harper Lee
and films I should see
and she'd read every book
that had ever meant anything to me
Chorus:
Mary was a fire
and I am a fire
and you were a fire
I miss your flame
Mary was a preacher once
but she quit preaching so that she could love
and love is all she does these days
she asked if god was real
if god needed healing too
if the whole thing hinges on
whether or not we could forgive her
Chorus
The poets, thy are a dying breed
in a world of steel and cold concrete
where so much is
guns and money and things
Chorus
When Mary is gone
and the cities are ashes
and the empires are mythologies
if anything at all
when I am dirt and stars
and you are dirt and stars
the old soul children learn
to recognize each others pyres.
Chorus


7. HOURS


Sun is rising over the hill
In the pale light
The moon is going to bed
I know every curve and stone
Follow the trail from top to bottom
Chorus:
Good night, you sea urchins
You nighttime villains
Dreamers who are too busy for dreaming
100 hours left 'til morning
Jesus and Nietzsche
Swinging their feet
Off the main stage,
And talking about suffering
Twiddling their thumbs
under the stars
They were getting along
Getting along
Until the dawn
Chorus:
Good night, you sea urchins
You nighttime villains
Dreamers who are too busy for dreaming
100 hours left 'til morning
Taking tips from
Dostoevsky
Relishing this
Sleepless sleep
I could close my eyes
Walk the crooked path at night
Find my way to you
As if it were daylight
Chorus:
Good night, you sea urchins
You nighttime villains
Dreamers who are too busy for dreaming
100 hours left 'til morning


8. PLANTS


Jonah's in the kitchen
and the whole house smells like heaven
and the cars are honking outside
and we have made a garden in the alley way
David's grading papers
and stories written by
kids in Brooklyn
without school books
he's trying not to leave them all
behind
A dove moved onto our fire escape
three months ago, and fourteen days
now she's sleeping in the flower pot
I wouldn't know, 'cept that she
leaves this little spot in the middle
in the middle...
oo la la la
oo la la la
hey!!!!!
plants are growing in the city!
Kathy's on the main floor
she is playing on her harp
it is floating up the stairs
it is moving through the air
into the whole wide world
We lay in our little bed
beneath the skylight,
where the moon she shines
brightest between
the hours of one and two a.m.
A dove moved onto our fire escape
three months ago, and fourteen days
now she's sleeping in the flower pot
I wouldn't know, 'cept that she
leaves this little spot in the middle
in the middle...
oo la la la
oo la la la
hey!!!!!
plants are growing in the city!


9. NO TELLING


Ain't no telling what they'll do
When the clouds descend on you
Wrap you up in a cotton ball
Or eat you, heart and all
Ain't no telling what they'll do
When the night curls around you
Hold you like the sorrow child
Or cast you to the wild
When I die lord, when I die
Give my ashes to the soil
Sure as the sun, she burns
I go, I go, I go

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