1. |
Weatherworn
04:21
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Every step I’ve taken
Has taken me this far
In one town I’m a beggar
In the next I am a star
Been torn up from the gravel
From the glory and the grind
On a crooked road traveled
That is not for the honest kind
The roadmap is highlighted
As new wrinkles in the mirror
Is it me or does it seem
I’ve aged twice alone in the year?
Since I threw my care
And caution to the wind
Now I’m weatherworn
From where I’ve been
Met my flaws and I fought with sin
Now I’m weatherworn
Now my sympathy is crying
With the passing midnight train
On a convoy of lost dreamers
I know well that graffiti tag
I read one author’s writing
Of a wild and reckless need
To live a life in a mad world
And to write all he wished he never seen
He threw his care
And caution to the wind
He grew weatherworn
From where he’s been
Wrote haikus for
The shape he was in
Writing weatherworn
Close your weary eyes
Heed to the good advice
Focus on the ground beneath
Don’t dwell on the pavement behind
And if you ever turn around
Before the shadows rot
Take with you what was gained
Forget everything that was lost
A tender touch awaits
Under that callus skin of yours
It reveals a different fate
After being weatherworn
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2. |
Every Day
03:58
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You left in the morning
You left with the sunrise
I woke up to greet you
To blow kisses goodbye
I wished well for your travels
As you drove down the driveway
I wished for engine failure
Anything to make you stay
This house it is much colder
Too cold that I can’t sleep
The walls are talking to me
Telling secrets I can’t keep
I lie in contemplation
By the light of a nightstand
With shadows on my kneecaps
And a feather in my hand
I’ll write you every day
’Til you come home
I’ll try to write with purity
some kind of perfect poem
And when I don’t
I’ll come undone
The hardest words to find
Are the right ones
I’ll paint you love as watercolours
Fresh as the May 1st rain
I’ll set a fire to the mountains
Of scrawls that I can’t claim
I’ll kiss the paper wings
Of the bird freed of its cage
I’m a constant in these four walls now
The mail lady knows me by name
I’ll write you every day
Just to fight
The tyranny of distance
And its unforgiving might
Even though
At times I’m weak
May the ink in the ballpoint pen
Conceal all the good in me
I’ll write you every day
‘Til you come home
I’ll try to write with purity
Some kind of perfect poem
What’s a boy
Like me to do
When wading in the high tides
Of missing you
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3. |
Embers
03:41
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Lady I see you smiling
True joy is shinning
Like the one that I first met
Lately I’ve been finding
Light in the silver lining
Of my recent regrets
Still for whatever reason
I can’t help believing
I’m the one to blame
If maybe I wasn’t such a coward
At every important hour
We’d have made it out okay
Still at the start we were nothing but fading embers
Put out by the breath of late November
And with every midnight promise ever made
We were broken with the break of day
All the shattered fragments
Held within my fiery mind
Have been reduced to dust
They were swept away
With the ashes
From an empty book of matches
That reads “it was what it was”
And the dawn always arises
To whisper clarity onto my ears of haste
Any attempt to make sense and meaning
Of what could have been is nothing but a waste
At the start we were nothing but fading embers
Put out by the breath of late November
And with every midnight promise ever made
We were broken with the break of day
So please don’t say sorry
For the way things ended
In our short story
We were two sad actors
Set in a fragile place
We were meant to be broken
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4. |
Ruthless River
02:03
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Ruthless river
Makes me shiver
Into it I dive
It shines of silver
And cuts like scissors
It makes me want to cry
I don’t know why it makes me do
Mean things like lie to you
I justify it to myself
As just stretching the truth
Neurons firing through limbs of iron
I’m a portrait of sunset bruises
Old patterns repeated, the frail and defeated
Are gathering shards of broken truces
I don’t see your face
But I see the window closing
It terrifies me of losing
Everything important
Ruthless river makes me shiver
From its banks I run
The colours have faded from the jagged
Edge of the chameleon’s tongue
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5. |
Royal Reserve
04:21
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In royal hands
A bottle is clutched
Where a crown and a pillow
Are always near to the touch
You call it a cushion
I think that’s a crutch
But I don’t ever
Say so much
A chip off the old block
Mended by the grout
Of a mason you resemble
Yet never talk about
You say that you’re afloat
I’m watching you drown
It is safe to say
You’re carrying the weight
The sticker collection you keep
Of the gold-outlined maple leaf
Was passed down from your old man
He was a proud Canadian
Years ago after school
We played in your yard
Where you showed me the tattoo
You pressed onto your arm
Above the skull and dagger
I noticed the marks
Your mother wore as well
Still hear her cries for help
All the damage that I witnessed
And the helplessness I felt
In the hiding places where
Our trembling hands were held
You told me to run home and
Not to speak a word of this
It’s not really him
Just the monsters within
The sticker collection you keep
Of the gold-outlined maple leaf
Was passed down from your old man
He was a proud Canadian
You are a proud Canadian
And I’m not trying
To be insincere
Boy I love you to death
And that’s why I’m here
I’ve been struggling with
My own relations with it
I am leaving for the flagpole
Come with matches if you wish
The sticker collection we keep
Of the gold-outlined maple leaf
How loyal are we to the brand
As proud Canadians?
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Joe Vickers Drumheller, Alberta
Farmer by day, troubadour by night, Joe Vickers has logged countless miles on both his combine and tour van. His music explores the human spirit singing of the triumphs and tragedies of everyday life on the prairies.
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