Lillian

It’s true you’re only twenty-five, Lillian

But what matters most is that you’re alive, Lillian

Life’s just a pattern that’s always repeating

The clock on the shelf might be over-heating

But listen, your heart is now beating

It’s you now, you’re one a million

The wheel just keeps turning

It may seem to the eye of the discerning

Nobody sees and nobody’s learning

But in all eternity there’s only one Lillian

The history book and the map, Lillian

Want to box you up into a trap, Lillian

All the codes you’ve so long hated

Return as if they had been fated

The ticking of time cannot be sedated

The routine has become so vaudevillian

The cycles are never completed

The universe never depleted

But don’t think that you’ll be defeated

As long as you’re here you are Lillian

I Sing the Body Atomic

Me trying to channel the Captain channeling Walt Whitman (if that's not obvious)

Well ah take off your shoes

And now take off your pants

And ah take down the doors 

But leave the windows to look through

Just draw the blinds open

Draw the blinds right open

Then draw the window, draw the mirror

And keep on drawing till you draw yourself

One day the sun won’t shine

The sun will stay in bed, won’t care to shine

But I won’t mind and you won’t need to mind

As long as you can feel that beat

All ya need’s the beat, that great big atomic beat

Rub those atoms together and feel the heat

Feel the heat, heal the light

And feel my heart, feel the heat

Yeah those little atoms in orbit

All turned on and shining bright

Shining like my heart and I didn’t forget to smile today

No I didn’t forget my heart

Well we can make that sun

If we have to we can break that sun

Every atom shines on shines on through

It’s that boogie momma beat

It’s the birds and the bees you see shine through

The birds are shining and the bees are too

All that light it’s two bees shining, shine shine on

Hear that boogie-woogie beating in your heart

Draw the doors and windows and blinds wide

Open ‘em wide and deep inside you

Rub those atoms together and feel the heat

Feel the heat and feel the beat, that boogie momma beat

FSK

Mister Francis Scott Key, after all the fanfare

The question remains: are we saved or forsaken

You had asked it yourself: is our country still there

Is there anything left with the pounding we’ve taken?

Will the rockets and bombs prove to be all that strong
Leaving us just a question in our national song?

With so much that’s been damaged, say what can we save

In this land of the free and the home of the brave?

Mister Francis Scott Key, you yourself have done wrong

It’s a truth we ignore, but it can’t be denied

And the words we don’t say, the verse we won’t sing

That our founders themselves had stories we hide

But where is the blame? And where is the shame

If the peril in the night we cannot even name

And what is our debt to the native and slave

In this land of the free and the home of the brave?

Today's Verse: 5 December 2023

There's another cyclone raging in the bay

Souvenirs are strewn across its rocky shores

Torn to pieces by the last one

That passed this way before

There's a cyclone, mighty cyclone

There's a cyclone in the bay

I think I want to get out of here

Now its been too many years

Many years stuck in this place

This place I came to escape

To escape indifferent fate

But traffic's at a standstill

No good choices do remain

A low pressure system

Spreads out like a duvet

The airport's closed forever

There's a cyclone in the bay

Jymn now you too have arrived at that age celebrated in the Beatles song.  May you be needed and fed for another year and many more.

Your sincerely,

Wasting Away

Flag Day

 As part of my ongoing project to write a song for every holiday

Flags are waving throughout the land

Come on now strike up the band

I don’t really understand

It’s Flag Day, Flag Day

From every car lot, every mall

Flags are flying straight and tall

Stand up and salute them all


It’s Flag Day, Flag Day

Everywhere the flags are flying

Everywhere they’re on display

It is very mystifying

Why flags should have a special day

There’s no speech, no oratory

No one ever tells the story

All we do is wave Old Glory

It’s Flag Day, Flag Day

Geography of Sorrow

Dennis had said that he wanted to do some new recordings on the theme of "Cosmic American Music," which was Gram Parsons term for his own music, mixing the country music of that era with hippie music.  I don't think that's what Dennis means, I think he just means our songs but with slide guitar and National steel, but here's what I came up with as a first attempt at my own version of it:

The Geography of Sorrow

I placed my flag in the new world

To flourish and to burgeon

And threw myself on the green land

As if it were a virgin

And though I thought I’d conquered it

It all turned contradictory

I found there was no apple pie

In what had seemed a victory

What’s the geography of sorrow?

What’s the geography of tears?
How do we map the loss

The hatred and the fears?

This land’s become my body

A map, immense and vast

It always flows out bountifully

But hides behind a mask

The land remains eternal

Though it’s life’s as short as mine

Silent as a history book

But ticking, watching time

What’s the geography of sorrow?

What’s the geography of tears?
How do we map the loss

The hatred and the fears?

I felt a mighty anger

Fire flooding from above

I’ve felt the wrath of fear

But this is wrath of love

It’s I who am now guilty

It’s I who played the whore

I kneel down and bow my head

Dressed as a conquistador

What’s the geography of sorrow?

What’s the geography of tears?
How do we map the loss

The hatred and the fears?

It rained the other night--always welcome in Northern California--and I felt some twinges in my right ankle.  It took me a few moments to realize that this my old football injury from St. John's greeting me from across 45 years. There are some things the body doesn't forget.

Happy birthday Johny!

 Now the earth's gone around the sun sixty-three times since it first shown on your budding body. And today it starts its round again. Have a good trip, one more time.

If it has a frame, it's a work of art

 

Tracy & Frida, October 10, 2023

RIP Kenneth Anger

 https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/25/kenneth-anger-obituary

Dennis goes solo

 http://dennisfinnegan.com/new-recordings-2

Latest from Laco

Roman Harvan, Laco Teren - Dreaming Away - YouTubeYouTubehttps://www.youtube.com › watch

Dreaming Away - Roman Harvan, Laco TerenApplehttps://music.apple.com › album › dreaming-away

Hear No Evil

The sounds at night. The sounds I hear at night.
I hear—I do not hear—I hear a tune
The silence and the song is what I hear.
What I don’t hear is you. I don’t hear you.

I hear no—
I fear no—
I hear no evil

I dream of how we’d walk out through the hours
I’d hear: click clack. The ticking. Then it stops .
When I look you’re not beside me. You’re gone.
Still I catch your footprints on the sidewalk

I hear no—
I fear no—
I hear no evil

You’re gone. The song goes on. The song is gone.
No chords. Not even notes. Perhaps just urges.
The silence and the song. But what I want
I want right now. The darkness. Silence. Perfect.

I hear no—
I fear no—
I hear no evil

Steal softly through sunshine...

 Saw Eugene Chadbourne the other evening at the Museum of Art Brut in Lausanne.  Small but very appreciative full house, mostly "young people", i.e., younger than me.  He sang and played a lot of nice songs. His Beefheart cover filled me with joy. I saw him once in Boston about twenty years ago, double bill with Jimmy Carl Black. I think this was better. He's the only musician besides myself I've seen play the Marauder.  Alas, he's sold the parts.

 We were at some sort of county fair/battle of the bands event. Tracy hadn't shown up yet, she was stuck in traffic or something, but we managed to tear up "Spheres" with just the three of us.

#9 Bream Song

The lake in the song is Lac Leman, and the bridge the good old Pont de Mont Blanc, which had a way of shaking as you walked across that now would make me think an earthquake was on the way.  I forget if I actually dreamed this, or imagined it as I was walking across the bridge stoned or just made up at some point.

I dreamed as I was walking across the lake

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream

The bridge beneath my feet began to shake

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream

A school of flying fish rose up in synch

Like dead poets, bless the poets

Electric yellow, neon green and pink

Like dead poets, bless the poets

I recognized those fish flying overhead

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream

Were the poets I read in my youth, now dead

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream

The shining spirits of poets who had died

Like dead poets, bless the poets 

Through neglect, disease or suicide

Like dead poets, bless the poets

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream 

Like dead poets, bless the poets

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream 

Like dead poets, bless the poets

The only beauty it seems that we revere

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream

Will flash and shine, explode, then disappear

Like dead poets, bless the poets

Like Berryman and Dylan, if you please

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream

Anne Sexton, Sylvia and Weldon Kees

Like dead poets, bless the poets

We all so love to dream of a special heaven

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream

For rock stars who have died at 27

Like dead poets, bless the poets

And what’s illuminated in their wake?

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream

Is it the blue of sky or blue of lake?

Like dead poets, bless the poets

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream 

Like dead poets, bless the poets

Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream 

Like dead poets, bless the poets, &c.

 Pelé may be gone, but Baby Pelé will live on forever.

 Jimmy, I'm sorry I forgot your birthday.  I hope it was filled with cheer.

Forgotten, but not gone

 Missing my birthday greeting!

Been there, done that

 

Happy birthday Johny

 And how you are celebrating today?

Dum Dum Boys

https://youtu.be/jRivyhE3JvU

Nice interview. Nice hearing them sing together, too.

Do The Murmuration, Baby

When 10,000 starlings fly

They mur-mur-ate

Make a kaleidoscope in the sky

They mur-mur-ate

Dancing without holding hands

More precise than marching bands

Just doing what the dance demands

They murmurate! They murmurate!

Humans on earth, let’s do it too

Let's mur-mur-ate

Let’s join together like starlings do

Let's mur-mur-ate

Can’t we learn to take a page

From those starlings who engage

To make the whole sky their own stage

Let’s murmurate! Let’s murmurate!

We too can move in a big formation

Let's mur-mur-ate

Rising and falling in a great gyration

Let's mur-mur-ate

We don’t need leaders, we don’t need rules

There’s dances you can’t learn in schools

Come on all you dancing fools

Let’s murmurate! Let’s murmurate!

Let's mur-mur-ate!

This is a 60s dance craze-type song for my dear friend Larry Starling.  Because he's dark-colored and lives in a birdcage he's hard to photograph.  This is the best I could do:

Epithalamion

I also wrote this one for him.  (Ned Stone = Philip van Ouse.)

Yesterday we wept

Tomorrow we will fight

But let there be no tears,

No anger on this night

And even if tomorrow is

The day the world ends

Tonight there is still time enough

To celebrate our friends

Though I am not a believer

And barely an agnostic

I do believe in this union

Of Van Ouse & Tomasic

Tonight there is no room
For the fear we all have carried

Tonight there’s only room for joy

For our friends who’re getting married

Don’t rise up from the table

Don’t turn away the cup

Tonight all sorrow’s chased with joy

Tonight we’ll drink it up

Though I am not a believer

And barely an agnostic

I do believe in this union

Of Van Ouse & Tomasic

Sonnet 43 or so

 My friend Ned Stone's getting married next month. I wrote this song for him (by way of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and John Cage)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the droop and breach and heft
My soap can reach, when feeling out of samples
For the ends of buttons and ideal grandmother.
I love thee to the liver of every day’s
Most quaggy niche, by soup and canine light.
I love thee frizzily, as men strip for Richard.
I love thee purple, as they turn from prairie dogs.
I love thee with the passport put to use
In my old gravy, and with my chicken’s fade-in.
I love thee with a love I seemed to loop
With my locked saints. I love thee with the bakery,
Smock, teapot, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after Delaware.

RIP Mary

 My mother died at home in bed on 11 May.

RIP Steven

I Am Waiting

I was thinking of like a Bowie song from "Lodger."

I am waiting for instructions
I am waiting to be given
The most recent set of orders
I am waiting for directions
I am waiting for a stockpile
Of gasoline and toilet paper
I am waiting for the drugstore
To renew my last prescription

I am waiting
I am waiting

I am waiting for the sirens
To stop their ringing for a moment
I am waiting for the militia
Getting closer to our borders
I am waiting to hear the anthem
Cheering on our local Farm Team
I am waiting for the ice cream truck
I haven’t heard those chimes in days now

I am waiting
I am waiting

We need the Good Guys, at least allies
The hotsie-totsies who punch Nazis
The dads and mommies, anti-Commies
Mounties on horses with their forces
I am waiting for the code
To this episode
The book, the guide
All the answers found inside

I am waiting for the moral
To this fable I keep hearing
I am waiting for the secret
Explanation to this story
I am waiting for the punchline
Of this endless shaggy dog joke
I am waiting. Can you hear me?
I am waiting. I am waiting

RIP Ronnie

https://youtu.be/_3QA2ATgIb0

 

Stood Up By A Song

Last night I was stood up by a song

I thought we had a date

I stayed home to wait

Did I get the day or the time all wrong?

Tuned my guitar and poured some wine

Gave my best cowboy boots a shine

But why did I get dressed

To be stood up by this guest

This shiftless no-show friend of mine?

Oh, I fill my head with words

Harmonize in thirds

Yodel country blues

Grab my book of synonyms

Then start chanting hymns

Bow down to the Muse

Guess that song’s not coming ‘round

The wine has all been downed

I’ll go quietly to bed

I’ll just have silence instead

No song, no words, no sound

No use for rhyming words

Major or minor thirds 

All I know of blues

Lose all those synonyms

No use chanting hymns

Just silence for the Muse

RIP Robbie Shakespeare

https://youtu.be/VVIsTZPp0iM 

Today's Verse: 2 December 2021

I want to sell you my birthday

It cannot be replicated

It's eternal, since the moment I ushered forth

We can exchange a digital handshake,

Itself unique in all the Universe,

Incorruptible and eternal

You will acquire sole ownership of

Any and all warm wishes, 

Ab initio and without termination,

Of my family, friends, lovers,

Airline loyalty clubs, hotel and/or restaurant chains, etc

You gambit: "What do I get out of it?"

You OWN it, baby!

How much?

Today's Verse: 1 December 2021

The neighbours found his body.

That's the beginning, and the end, 

of the story.

Today’s Verse: 27 November 2021

A little thought

I forgot

Directly from my Fridge to You

 

RIP Don

 I remember Junior year Jimmy had that little Close-&-Play in his cubbyhole in East Pinkney, and played the Everly Brothers a lot (and also Johnny Burnette, if I recall correctly.) I thought it was just some Happy Days "Wake Up Little Suzy" camp and got tired of it, but Jimmy said, No, listen to it, it's really beautiful.  I did and he was right.  

 Italy's recent soccer win reminded me of the summer of 1982 and the Italian team's mad goalie Zof and the one day that the banker's town of Genève stayed up all night to party.

Bric-A-Brac

Everybody has a drawer

Of things they don’t need any more

Pictures cut from magazines

Little parts from small machines

Bottle caps and little tops

Take-out menus, cards from shops

Extra sets of unknown keys

Everyone has things like these

Useless little things like these

People find room in their hearts

For machines with broken parts

Things they should have thrown away

The old, the damaged and the stray

And I too seem to fill my days

With silly little throwaways

With gewgaws, junk and oddities

And useless little songs like these

Little songs like these

(after Dorothy Parker)

Today's Verse: 28 June 2021

The future has no future
There I'll be
In one big now
Scrapping to scrape by, survive

Slipping down the pole

Nature won't prioritise

Just desire, need, raw power

I understand

I won't control anything

Throw the dice with all my might

Ready as I'll ever be

Dig in, grit my teeth, smile 

My Own Skylark

 Going all in on the pretentiousness:

I sit alone, as day dissolves to night
And notice, high above, a bird in flight
Wandering, like the raven from Noah’s ark
Singing just for me, my own skylark

The sound that through the ages poets have heard
Cannot be turned to image, song or word
It turns back on itself like a question mark
That’s the riddle of the song of my skylark

The sweetest songs are those 
That tell of saddest thought
My heart rides on your wings
Inside your song I’m caught
What is this dream or vision
Brought to me from afar?

I want to say, although it sounds absurd,
“Thou wast not born for death, Immortal Bird.”
And then the singing stops. The sky is dark.

I’ll never hear again my own skylark

Today's Verse: 19 June 2021

I'm sending you a postcard
Of a place I'd like to be

In April, May, or June

Ideally you're with me

Wait, wait

We're getting closer

Wait, wait

We're closing space

Wait, wait

We're toe to toe now

Wait, wait

We're face to face

I'm sending you a postcard

Of a bridge across a bay

Of a summit in the welkin

Of a world that's far away

I'm sending you a postcard

Of lava burning bright

Waves crashing on the shoreline

Of jewels that span the night

Wait, wait

We're getting closer

Wait, wait

We're closing space

Wait, wait

We're toe to toe now

Wait, wait

We're face to face

I'm sending you a postcard

Of a place I'd like to be

From now until whenever

Ideally you're with me

Wait, wait

We're getting closer

Wait, wait

We're closing space

Wait, wait

We're toe to toe now

Wait, wait

We're face to face

Rock Scissors Paper

 It's been a long time since I've written an Eno-esque nonsense song.

I was born squalid

Or—whatcha call it?

I’m just a big orangutan

who likes to toss his feces

I’m a young savage 

Quite below average

I will hit you like a rock 

And I will smash you into pieces

CHORUS: Oh, rock scissors paper

Rock scissors paper

You cut me now but I’ll cover you later

Paper rock scissors

Scissors paper rock

We tick & tock and click & cluck like a kooky cuckoo clock

Night singing skylark

Knife swinging mud shark

I’ll sweep you up and cut you down 

and slice you into slivers

I got my weapon

Watch what you step in

The click-clack that you hear is just 

The slicing of my scissors

Oh, rock scissors paper

Rock scissors paper

You cut me now but I’ll cover you later

Paper rock scissors

Scissors paper rock

We tick & tock and click & cluck like a kooky cuckoo clock

Oh, you silly dandy

You piece of rock candy

You’ll disappear completely like 

a quicksand-sinking lover

You’re think that you an Uzi

You silly floppy floozy

You can smash and you can cut 

But remember, I can cover

Oh, rock scissors paper &c.

Today's Verse: 11 May 2021

Going home to see my lover die
To whisper fondly "goodbye, goodbye"
All at once, all is undone
An abyss yawns where there was none
It's hungry and I can't resist
Being swallowed in its kiss
O! Alas! I'm losin' it

Today's Verse: 8 May 2021

I can't hold on, I'm letting go
Of everything I want to know
Free will and sensuality
Together have deserted me
Docile and considerate
I lie in bed and reminisce
O! Alas! I'm losin' it

Today's Verse: 7 May 2021

Tides are servants of the moon
You and I are servants too
Cycles take us high and low
Tumbling through the surf we go
Breathless we're deposited
On the sand to wait and sit
O! Alas! I'm losin' it

Today's Verse: 6 May 2021

There's comfort in slouching
Lying down on the job
Taking it easy
Being a slob

Today's Verse: 5 May 2021

Pleasure is a jellyfish
Dangerous, diaphanous

In an ocean of desire

Floating like a holy fire

Current makes us intimate

A little scared I must admit

O! Alas! I'm losin' it

Today's Verse: 4 May 2021

Good is bad and bad is good
The wolf is little red riding hood

Grandmother's out of touch it seems

She mixes up real life and dreams

The pieces of the puzzle no longer fit

The world is small and full of shit

O! Alas! I'm losin' it

Today's Verse: 27 April 2021

It's not curtains
I'm worried about

Let 'em rise, let 'em fall

By now, I've prob'bly seen it all

Though I nurture

A little doubt

April's Fool

what kind of fool would leave his friends in space,

 when they were right beside him, ready for the race? 

 why ever miss the chance, though they are far away, to join them in the dance that makes each day a play? 

 just words upon a screen, a cynic might opine, but their words touch my life, like fresh lips tasting wine.

 so call me April's fool, and call my longings folly, I know my foolish friends will always keep me jolly.

Today's Verse: 27 March 2021

The snails are rising
In towns and cities

The snails are rising

Throughout the land

The snails are rising

It isn't pretty

The snails are rising

They're out of hand

Inside their shells

There's trouble brewing

Inside their shells

The flames are fanned

Inside their shells

The fire's fueling

Inside their shells

Revolt is planned

What do they want?

What is their creed?

To satisfy

Their endless craving?

And to assuage

Their shameless needs?

The snails are rising

The earth is trembling

The snails are rising

It's judgement day

The snails are rising

In ranks assembling

The snails are rising

Too late to pray

Gone straight

 

Today's Verse: 18 March 2021

Felice has gone away
Dawn saw her silent leaving

Her neighbours fret and pray

She will not be returning

We loved her very much

We loved her very, very much

We loved her very much

Now she's gone away

I saw you hesitate

In between both now and then

Trying to seduce fate

Any way you lose and win

I love you very much

I love you very, very much

I love you very much

Now you've gone away

Daybreak came

I fell asleep

Afraid of losing you

When I awake

My mind at ease

You tell me what I always knew

Fire will consume us

In smoke we wander home

Water will entomb us

Nevermore to be alone

I loved you very much

I loved you very, very much

I loved you very much

And now you've gone away

Dancing with my demons

Making out like my sweet lord

The world is only seeming

A dream and nothing more

We love you very much

We love you very, very much

We love you very much

Now that you've gone away

Today’s Verse: 2 March 2021

 In a classy limousine 

He is often vaguely seen

Though the window’s not yet shut

You can see his shiny butt

Hover in the gloaming air

All at once, no longer there

RIP Phil

 I well remember the time around sophomore year at St John's when I had the Wall of Sound on constant rotation. Genius? Madman? Looked great in a wig. I'm looking forward to reading his prison journals or seeing the Netflix movie of same. Please Al Pacino.

RIP Sylvain

Sorry to read of his departure.... to a private world no doubt.

Today's Verse: 1 January 2021

 From the day I saw light first

I was blessed and I was cursed

Precognition is the gift

I was made to struggle with

Let me share it clear and plain

Everyday: more of the same

Love Cult!

 I took a poke at your Love Cult, Jimmy. The original song was written to an already-existing tune with no chorus, as Dennis favors the 32-bar AABA form.  I used the same form, so once again no chorus. However since Dennis thought "anthropophagic" was too hard to sing, I've cut his supper up for him and used (almost) all words of one syllable. Love cult!

Love cult, love cult

Come be part of our rite

Love cult, love cult

We only meet at night

 

Love cult, love cult

We sing our hymns of praise

Love cult, love cult

Just like the good old days

 

Boys and girls

Meet by night lit by the stars above 

Make their vows

That they’ll give their lives to live for Love

 

Love cult, love cult

Let all love be free

Love cult, love cult

Come make love with me!

 I dreamed I was getting new strings for my bass, and as I woke up, my left hand was playing "Baby, Won't You Come Upstairs." What a great song that is.

Happy Birthday Jymn

 I seem to have gotten my birthday wish--may you get all yours!

The Tragi-comedy of Love

Love is comic
Anarchic and anomic
Love is hilarious
So funny, so precarious
 
Love is tragic
Grotesque and anthropophagic
Love’s Grand Guignol
With a mad king and mad queen role
 
Angels laugh
When two lovers kiss 
And suddenly their hearts beat faster
Demons laugh
When the whole show turns to
Horror and to disaster
 
Is it catharsis?
Is that really what this farce is?
How can we know?
On with this tragic vaudeville show!

Music From a Time of Immaturity

 Archivist Phil Milstein sent me this fragment of a solo electric tuba performance. My guess is Chet's circa 1987.

https://soundcloud.com/user-60976419/solo-live-electric-tuba-fancy

Happy Birthday Johny! This is a big one!

I sincerely hope that my birthday wish for you is the same as your birthday wish and that it comes true.

Love on ya

Yer Darn Tootin' Round Two

 The Book of Jones will be presenting our pitch to be Your Next Favorite Musical next Thursday the 27th at 8 PM Pacific time. It was supposed to be a live competition last April but instead it's an online video, which means that you my dear friends who are far away can view it by following the links from here. If you miss it the first time, it should be archived at that site afterwards.

King Corona

Here's my Covid song. I was thinking of those old blues songs about diseases, like the TB Blues



There’s an old demon worryin’ ‘round my door
Oh, King Corona
I told him I’m not the one he’s looking for
Oh King Corona
I said, Sir you must be mistaken
I locked my door, but he tried to break in
He’s a nasty devil and he means to score
Oh, King Corona

I thought maybe I could hide
Oh, King Corona
Spend the rest of my life inside
Oh, King Corona
I don’t know what makes him desire us
So much power in one little virus
Couldn’t get away no matter how I tried
Oh, King Corona

When he comes knocking, will I be able to refuse?
Oh, King Corona
Will I be the one that he grabs and subdues?
Oh King Corona
First you have a little cough
Soon that demon tries to carry you off
Don’t want to sing those ventilator blues
Oh King Corona

Today's Verse: 24 July 2020

We met on the eve
Of Covid 19
Your lips were rubies
Your eyes shiny green

We made love all night
You left the next day
I learned from the app
Covid took you away

Open Song

I had a little secret

I had a secret just for you

I found a little stone

A perfect little pebble

Gray and smooth like any other 

For you, it was for you

For no one else but you

I couldn’t put it in your ear

I couldn’t, so I put it on your tongue

Behind your tongue

Beneath your tongue

I put it under your tongue

I had a little secret

I had a little button and I didn’t know where to hide it

So I put it under your tongue

A secret for you to find

To find when you were ready

Maybe one day as a lisp

Maybe one day as a stammer

It was a little pocket with a secret 

 I hid it under your tongue

Your little tongue

Your little tongue

A little snake that pops out

A little jack-in-the-box 

I made a little puzzle

I made a little riddle

It was just for you, I made it just for you

I made it for you but I kept a piece for me

Just one piece for myself

I wanted to give you something to read

I wanted to ask you to read me but I didn’t want to

I was afraid to

I made a thing to read to you

A little thing for you to read

Folded paper, folded words

I kept one piece and I hid the rest

I hid it where you could find it 

You know where, you know where

I hid it where you can find it

It was a present for you, that’s all

I wanted you to find it

I wanted you to read me

Little button, little pocket

Little riddle, little present

Little secret

Little stone