Mansard Roof

I see a mansard roof through the trees
I see a salty message written in the eaves
The ground beneath my feet
The hot garbage and concrete
And now the tops of buildings, I can see them too

The argentines collapse in defeat
The admiralty surveys the remnants of the fleet
The ground beneath their feet
Is a nautically-mapped sheet
As thin as paper
while it slips away from you

Oxford Comma

Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
I’ve seen those English dramas too
They’re cruel
So if there’s any other way
To spell the word
It’s fine with me, with me

Why would you speak to me that way
Especially when I always said that I
Haven’t got the words for you
All your diction dripping with disdain
Through the pain
I always tell the truth

Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
I climbed to Dharamsala too, I did
I met the highest lama
His accent sounded fine
to me, to me

Check your handbook
It’s no trick
Take the chapstick
Put it on your lips
Crack a smile
Adjust my tie
Know your boyfriend, unlike other guys

Why would you lie about how much coal you have?
Why would you lie about something dumb like that?
Why would you lie about anything at all?
First the window, then it’s to the wall
Lil’ Jon, he always tells the truth

Check your passport
It's no trick
Take the chapstick
Put it on your lips
Crack a smile
Adjust my tie
Know your butler, unlike other guys
Why would you lie about how much coal you have?
Why would you lie about something dumb like that?
Why would you lie about anything at all?
First the window, then it’s through the wall
Why would you tape my conversations?
Show your paintings
At the United Nations
Lil’ Jon, he always tells the truth

A-Punk

Johanna drove slowly into the city
The Hudson River all filled with snow
She spied the ring on His Honor’s finger
Oh-oh-oh

A thousand years in one piece of silver
She took it from his lilywhite hand
Showed no fear – she’d seen the thing
In the Young Men’s Wing at Sloan-Kettering

Look outside at the raincoats coming, say OH

His Honor drove southward seeking exotica
Down to the Pueblo huts of New Mexico
Cut his teeth on turquoise harmonicas
Oh-oh-oh

I saw Johanna down in the subway
She took an apartment in Washington Heights
Half of the ring lies here with me
But the other half’s at the bottom of the sea

Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

As a young girl Louis Vuitton
With your mother on a sandy lawn

As a sophomore with reggaeton
And the linens you’re sitting on

Is your bed made?
Is your sweater on?
Do you want to?
Like you know I do

But this feels
so unnatural
Peter Gabriel too

Can you stay up to see the dawn
In the colors of Bennetton?

Is your bed made?
Is your sweater on?
Do you want to?
Like you know I do

But this feels
so unnatural
Peter Gabriel too

Is your bed made?
Is your sweater on?
Do you want to?
Like you know I do

M79

It’s going to take a little time
While you’re waiting like a factory line
I’ll ride across the park
Backseat on the 79

Wasted days you've come to pass

So go I know you would not stay
It wasn’t true, but anyway
Pollination yellow cab

You walk up the stairs
see the french kids by the door
Up one more flight
See the Buddha on the second floor

Coronation rickshaw grab

So go, I know you would not stay
It wasn’t true, but anyway
Racist dreams you should not have

No excuse to be so callous
Dress yourself in bleeding madras
Charm your way across the Khyber pass

Stay awake to break the habit
Sing in praise of Jackson Crowter
Watch your step along the arch of glass

Campus

I wake up
My shoulder's cold
I’ve got to leave here
Before I go
I pull my shirt on
Walk out the door
Drag my feet along the floor
I pull my shirt on
Walk out the door
Drag my feet along the floor

Then I see you
you’re walking cross the campus
Cruel professor studying romances
How am I supposed to pretend
I never want to see you again?
How am I supposed to pretend
I never want to see you again?

Walked to class In front of ya
Spilled kefir on your keffiyah
you look inside
and turn toward the door
drag your feet along the floor

then i see you
you’re walking cross the campus
cruel professor
studying romances
how am i supposed to pretend
i never want to see you again?
how am i supposed to pretend
i never want to see you again?

In the afternoon
you're out on the stone and grass
And I'm sleeping on the balcony
after class

Bryn

Ion displacement won’t work in the basement
Especially when I’m not with you
Here in the heartland, a feeling so startling
I don’t know what I should do

Oh Bryn! you see through the dark
Right past the fireflies that sleep in my heart
You know, it’s easy to see
Wait for the season to come back to me

Lights by the ocean
A westerly motion that moves California to sea
Eyes like a seagull
No Kansas-born beetle could ever come close to that
free

One (Blake’s Got a New Face)

Occident out on the weekend
That’s the way that we relax

English Breakfast tastes like Darjeeling
But sheÆs too cute to even ask

Blake’s got a new face (Blake’s got a new face)

Nastiness will cause your doom
Turn and walk back to your room

The precedent’s already set now
You spend a week in old San Juan

Spanish brownstone with chairs of leather
And spanish waves to roll along

Majesty’s not overheard
Cryptographs can’t stand the word

Oh your collegiate grief has left you dowdy in sweat-
shirts
Absolute horror!

I Stand Corrected

You’ve been checking on my facts
And I admit I have been lax
In double screening what I say
It wasn’t funny anyway

I stand corrected

No one cares when you are wrong
But I’ve been at this far too long
To act like that when we should be
In perfect harmony

I stand corrected

Lord knows I haven’t tried
I’ll take my stand one last time

Forget the protocol
I’ll take your hand right in mine

I stand corrected

Walcott

Walcott,
don’t you know that it’s insane?
Don’t you want to get out of Cape Cod?
out of Cape Cod tonight

Walcott
Mystic Seaport
is that that way
Don't you know
that your life could be lost?
out of Cape Cod tonight

Walcott
the bottleneck is a shit-show
Hyannis Port is a ghetto
out of Cape Cod tonight

The lobster’s claw
is sharp as knives
Evil feasts
on human lives
The Holy Roman Empire
roots for you

Walcott
all the way to New Jersey
All the way to the Garden State
out of Cape Cod tonight

Walcott
fuck the women from Wellfleet
Fuck the bears out in Provincetown
Heed my words and take flight

The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance

A devastating backstroke
All the way from France
With shiny, shiny cufflinks
A shirtsleeve to enhance

The pin-striped men of morning
Are coming for to dance
With pure egyptian cotton
The kids don’t stand a chance

You criticize the practice
By murdering the plants
Ignoring all the history
Denying them romance

The pin-striped men of morning
Are coming for to dance
Forty-million dollars
The kids don’t stand a chance

I didn’t like the business,
But that was at first glance
Your pillow feels so soft now
But still you must advance

The pin-striped men of morning
The partners in the dance
The paper’s shot to pieces
The kids don’t stand a chance