Suzanne Vega
|
Straight Lines
There's a sound
Across the alley
Of cold metal
Touching skin
And you can see
If you look in her window
That she has
gone and cut
Her hair again
In straight lines
Straight lines
Those soft golden lights in the morning
Are now on her
wooden floor
The wind has swept them through the apartment
She don't need
them
Any more
Any more
Any more...
She's cut down
On her lovers
Though she still dreams
Of them at night
She's growing straight lines
Where once were flowers
She
is streamlined
She is taking the shade down
From the light
To see the straight lines
Straight lines
She wants to cut through the circles
That she has lived in
before
She wants to finally kill the delusions
She won't need them
Any
more
Any more
Any more...
But there's a sound
Across the alley
Of cold metal
Too close to the bone
And you can see
If you look in her window
The face of a
woman
Finally alone
Behind straight lines
Straight lines
Marlene On The Wall
Even if I am in love with you
All this to say, what's it to
you?
Observe the blood, the rose tattoo
Of the fingerprints on me from you
Other evidence has shown
That you and I are still alone
We skirt around the danger zone
And don't talk about it later
Marlene watches from the wall
Her mocking smile says it all
As the records the rise and fall
Of every soldier passing
But the only soldier now is me
I'm fighting things I cannot
see
I think it's called my destiny
That I am changing
Marlene on the wall
I walk to your house in the afternoon
By the butcher's shop
with the sawdust strewn
"Don't give away the goods too soon"
Is what she
might have told me
And I tried so hard to resist
When you held me in your
handsome fist
And reminded me of the night we kissed
And of why I should
be leaving
Marlene watches from the wall
Her mocking smile says it all
As the records the rise and fall
Of every man who's been here
But the only one here now is me
I'm fighting things I
cannot see
I think it's called my destiny
That I am changing
Marlene on the wall
In The Eye
If you were to kill me now right here
I would still look
you in the eye
And I would burn myself into your memory
as long as you
were still alive
I would live inside of you
I'd make you wear me like a scar
And I would burn myself
into your memory
and run through everything
you are
I would not run, I would not turn, I would not hide
In the eye
If you were to kill me now right here
I would still look
you in the eye
And I would burn myself
into your memory
as long as you
were still alive
I would not run, I would not turn, I would not hide
In the eye
Look me in the eye
Calypso
My name is Calypso
And I have lived alone
I live on an
island
And I waken to the dawn
A long time ago
I watched him struggle
with the sea
I knew that he was drowning
And I brought him into me
Now
today
Come morning light
He sails away
After one last night
I let
him go.
My name is Calypso
My garden overflows
Thick and wild
and hidden
Is the sweetness there that grows
My hair it blows long
As I
sing into the wind
My name is Calypso
And I have lived alone
I live on
an island
I tell of nights
Where I could taste the salt on his skin
Salt of the waves
And of tears
And though he,pulled away
I kept him here for years
I let him go
My name is Calypso
I have let him go
In the dawn he
sails away
To be gone forever more
And the waves will take him in again
But he'll know their ways now
I will stand upon the shore
With a clean
heart
And my song in the wind
The sand will sting my feet
And
the sky will burn
It's a lonely time ahead
I do not ask him to return
I
let him go
I let him go
Predictions
Let's tell the future
Let's see how it's been done.
By
numbers. By mirrors. By water.
By dots made at random on paper.
By salt. By dice.
By meal. By mice.
By dough of cakes.
By sacrificial fire.
By fountains. By fishes.
Writing in ashes.
Birds. Herbs.
Smoke from the altar.
A suspended ring or the mode of laughing
Pebbles drawn from
a heap
One of these things
Will tell you something.
Let's tell the future
Let's see how it's been done.
By
dreams. By the features. By letters.
By dropping hot was into water.
By nails reflecting the rays of the sun.
By waling in a
circle.
By red hot iron.
By passages in books.
A balanced hatchet.
A suspended ring or the mode of laughing
Pebbles drawn from
a heap
One of these things
Will tell you something.
Let's tell the future
Let's see how it's been done.
How
it's been done.
Pilgrimage
This line is burning
Turning to ash as it hits the air
Every step is a day in the week
It's a Sunday or Monday
A march over
months of the year
This life is burning
Turning to ash as it hits the air
Every death is an end in the race
It's a stopping and starting
A march
over millions of years
Travel. Arrival
Years of an inch and a step
Toward a
source
I'm coming to you
I'll be there in time
This land is burning
Turning to ash as it hits the air
Every line is a place on a map
It's a city or valley
A mark on these miles
of fields
Travel. Arrival
Years of an inch and a step
Toward a
source
I'm coming to you
I'll be there in time
This line is burning
Turning to ash as it hits the air
Every step is a day in the week
It's a Wednesday or Thursday
A march over
months of the year
Travel. Arrival
Years of an inch and a step
Toward a
source
I'm coming to you
I'll be there in time
I'm coming to you
I'll be there in time
Take this
Mute mouth
Broken tongue.
Now this
Dark
life
Is shot through with light
Bad Wisdom
Mother the doctor knows something is wrong
Cause my body
has strange information
He's looked in my eyes and knows I'm not a child
But he doesn't dare ask the right question
Mother my friends are no longer my friends
And the games we
once played have no meaning
I've gone serious and shy and they can't figure
why
So they've left me to my own daydreaming
What price to pay
For bad wisdom
What price to pay
For bad wisdom
Too young to know
Too much too soon
Bad wisdom
Mother you've taught me the laws are so fine
If I'm good
that I will be protected
I've fallen through the crack and there's no getting
back
And I'll never trust whoever gets elected
Mother your eyes have gone suddenly cold
And it wasn't
what I was expecting
Once I did think that I'd find comfort there
And
instead you've gone hard and suspecting
What price to pay
For bad wisdom
What price to pay
For bad wisdom
Too young to know
Too much too soon
Bad wisdom
Mother I'm cut at the root like a weed
Cause there's no one
to hear my small story
Just like a woman who walks in the street
I will
pay for my life with my body
What price to pay
For bad wisdom
What price to pay
For bad wisdom
Too young to know
Too much too soon
Bad wisdom
Tombstone
I like a tombstone cause it
weathers well
and if it
stands or if it crumbles
only time will tell
if you carve my name in marble
you must cut it deep
there'll be no dancing on the gravestone
you must let me sleep
and time is
burning burning burning
it burns away
I don't need to see the gates of
famous men
but I do
try to see the kingdom
every now and then
if you ask me where it is it's on a
humble map
and I
know that to enter in the doorway
show your handicap
and time is burning
burning burning
it burns away
copyright ©
László Zoltán 2014
e-mail: Literatura.hu