Cold

The world awaits in barren splendor
For someone to stir the embers

-Bill Mallonnee, "Extreme North of the Compass"

Nothing Special

You can map the lay of the land
Darling, you can describe the sad terrain
Let us survey all the borders
Sugar, don't it all still look the same?
And when you find there's nothing special
About that great big ole hole in your heart
Cause everybody's got one
Yeah with precious little time to talk about it

Nothing like the leaves round your front door
The stages and the pages
Yeah, you've been in love before
And the things you feel inside your bones
Those that won't leave you
Those that won't leave you
Those that won't leave you alone

-Bill Mallonee, "Nothing Like a Train"

Flowers

Flowers growing out of your desert
Flowers out of parched ground
Flowers coming right up through the cracks
Of the pavement in this old town
Flowering's not a science
It's more like a fine art
Flowers coming right up through the cracks
Of our beat-down,
Burdened,
Broken,
Bruised,
Bloody,
Bastardized,
Besotted,
Bespotted,
Bamboozled,
Little hearts

-Bill Mallonee

Moonbeams

Moonlight be a friend tonight
We're all wrecked up on these dreams
Holding on a bit too tight
I've got splinters from these moonbeams
If it seems we're falling down
If it seems we're falling through
Darlin' you know that is nothing
Darlin' you know that is nothing new

-Bill Mallonee, "You Know That (is Nothing New)"

Fire Alarms

Used to install fire alarms before I ever started to sing
After all these years, I find I've been doing the same thing

-Bill Mallonee, "Opposite's True"

Confession

I once bought a magic marker
The kind with permanent ink
I wrote down all my bad thoughts
I got ‘em all I think
In every bathroom stall
On every vacant wall
Highly classified information
Yeah I exposed it all

-Bill Mallonee, "Tokyo Rose"

Could Be A Lot Worse

a kiss for the miles to drive, a prayer for when it rains
one shot of perspective, a couple more to kill the pain
when all the best metaphors are hitting too close to home
when all the best metaphors are bleeding from your bones

I'm gonna die a failure, but to happiness awake
you can go to sleep in hell, and wake up at heaven's gate
think of all that we missed today that lay right before our eyes
think of all that fades away in our hard-pressed compromise

this is dangerous terrain we're attempting to traverse
and it's a cryin' shame, but it could be a lot worse

so you proceed with caution, though you're mumbling in the dark
and that one shot of perspective has finally hit your heart

faith, she's a whistling train running hard in the dark
hope is like a thing untamed, gonna lay to waste your heart
love is a little bit of God, there for all to know
love is the everlasting arms that never do let go...

this is dangerous terrain we're attempting to traverse
and it's a cryin' shame, but it could be a lot worse

-Bill Mallonee