In a short lived stolen moment

between coming from and going

On the island of Manhattan

where the strangest things can happen

You’ll be sitting sipping coffee looking pretty as always

And the sight of you will stop me in my tracks

Oh Samantha, I had plans but

Never knew that needed saying

Oh Samantha, I wrote anthems

Just to drown the sound of waiting

Well I’ll ask about your work and you’ll ask me how my tours been

And we’ll toss those softball questions for a while

But too many years divided can only lead to forced politeness

Check your watch and leave me with a smile

Oh Samantha, I had plans but

Never knew that needed saying

Oh Samantha, I wrote anthems

Just to drown the sound

No need to be forthright

Seem you had a nice life, and I did too

But in the back of my mind

In another timeline

I had a better one with you

Samantha, I had plans but

Never knew that needed saying

Oh Samantha, I wrote anthems

Just to drown the sound

Just to drown the sound

We stand at South Station, 

crossed arms and forced conversation

Neither wanting to claim blame for some 

altercation I can’t reclaim, but we talk

Yeah we talk, yeah we talk 

Cause a bitter fairwell’s bad luck

We argue with crimson violet

Hot stares and cold powered silence 

I guess that’s our way, you and me

Tender hearts, temper fits, 

And that’s the way it’ll be

Unless we try and change it

But I hate, yeah I hate 

How it makes me still feel like a kid

. . . .

At the station I think of Scarlett

An old friend from the farmers market, she’s 

encyclopedic on greenery and seedlings and

Likes lots of people but keeps to herself after

Spending the year by a hospital bed and now

Scarlett has no one to argue with

Scarlett has no one to argue with 

Scarlett has no one to argue with so I

Start to lose taste for our arguments, 

Knowing Scarlett has no one to argue with

Just a small child with green eyes

And a complicated love for the spotlight

Only wanting it if you look just right 

And never thinking you do

Used to sing out in grade school

Till the other graders made you feel uncool

Wasn’t very faithful to the golden rule

It doesn’t matter either way now

Count your cost, quit your dreaming

Now that Alexandra’s screaming

She saw it from so far off and still 

Somehow you’re lost and beaten down

Where’d you find that scathing silence

Addiction to a fiction of self-reliance

Saying “you can’t make it till then”

Will you ever write a wishlist in ballpoint pen?

Say you’re wounded when the truth is

That’s a bead along a string of excuses

You meet her in the bathroom each time

The villain and the victim on either side

Count your cost, quit your dreaming

Now that Alexandra’s screaming

She saw it from so far off and still 

Somehow you’re lost and beaten down

Alexandra’s screaming now

Fracture’s in the steps peak out

To keep you from your temple

When will it get simple

Tell me it gets simple

Dust on the steeple, warry-eyed people

Filling the streets with dreams and mistakes

City life leaves you wearied and green too

Nobody needs you but everyone takes

Day in, day out

Signs say “stay in,” “stay out”

John and Cece make it look easy

Bread in the morning and songs in the evening

Up in the hills where the air gets lighter

And the sounds of the freeway taste 

Like the waves they catch on weekends

I keep their home fit while they’re away

watering their children

Finding magic hidden everyday

in love notes they’ve written

Soon they’ll head back west for summer

I’ll be gone by their return, hanging daisies on 

Whatever door I next call mine

A lesson learned in taking time

John and Cece make it look easy

Pack in the wagon and drive to the beach and 

Out where the sea sways to meet the horizon

The same glisten they find in each other's eyes and think isn’t this something

Isn’t this paradise

All we need’s this sunset and guitar

The height of luxury is sitting where we are

New York, you’re bad to me

You spend my money and my energy

Change my plans without apology

When nothing’s running express

New York, you don’t treat me right

Cars and sirens keep me up each night

And your diamond studded pavement’s a trick of the light

Ooh, you put my love to the test

I’m tied up like a pretzel

Trying to be what I’m not

You should make me feel special

But I’m just a drop in your pot

Someday I’ll settle down

With some sweeter, cleaner, greener town

And I won’t mind having all that space around

But you’ll be hard to forget

I’m tied up like a pretzel

Trying to be what I’m not

You should make me feel special

But these sorry-starry eyes are on every city block

Someday I’ll settle down

With some sweeter, cleaner, greener town

And I’ll make my waves while all your new lovers drown

And the train keeps running and the world spins round

But something will be missing it’s true

Oh New York there’s no getting over you

Oh New York there’s no getting over you

Late afternoons on miracle mile

Let’s take a break from the day for a while

You grab your skateboard, and I’ll do my best

To keep up on my own two feet

Smile at the neighbors, smell all the flowers

Point out the houses much nicer than ours

“We’ll get there someday” you shout back my way

Tracing waves down the street

Yesterday’s troubles can rest in our room

The Ana’s are out and the Anda’s in bloom

Tell mom and papa we’re gonna be fine

Old sunny skies can’t be far down the line

Every day we can greet with a smile is a miracle

Through the picture window, winter falls

We tiptoe out as adventure calls

Breyer horse collection, dollhouse chairs

Packed now somewhere

Me and my good friend down the road

We thought our parents would grow old together

There it is, memories we bend to fix in boxes

The dogwood days have come to end

Leave the kitchen light on, one more night

We crowd the island like olden times 

Through the picture window, life in limbo

Now that it’s only a launching site

Old tennis rackets and winter coats

Tricolored ribbons and birthday notes

I’ve got a feeling this is only the beginning

There it is, memories we bend

To fix in boxes and never find again

The dogwood days have come to end

To end

Every now and then I miss when you were mine

Something extra lonely ‘bout the evening time

And we had lots of problems, but I only 

think about those while the sun shines

I went through deleting your old messages

Call it masochism call it cleanliness, and 

I almost forgot how much you 

Cared before you stopped

I was kind then I was not

Guess we both got what we got

But I made good on my plans, man

Up in Beachwood Canyon

New years of nineteen I couldn’t help myself

You were getting drunk while I kissed someone else

We changed the rules so many times and both lost sight

Of what was feeling forced and what was feeling right

But I made good on my plans, man

Up in Beachwood Canyon

Some days I imagine you a passer by the 

Less I know the better of your present life

And you deserve someone who eats up 

All your cheesy dance moves

I know, you know I tried 

But I made good on my plans, man

Up in Beachwood Canyon

Up in Beachwood Canyon