1. |
(Never) Good Enough
02:44
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Underneath the Belpre Toll Bridge,
we laid back and kicked our feet
into the muddy waters of the Ohio.
You tugged at my shoestrings.
Finding pay phones to call our mothers
near the all-night diners where we'd eat.
You took my photo in the corner booth.
We paid the tips that our friends wouldn't leave.
We made it out back then
just to prove that it could be done.
Are you happy?
Do you still feel loved?
Because "good enough" is never good enough.
Just a few years ago seems like forever -
that jukebox, lifetimes away.
You'd pay the extra for "Funeral Procession"
just to watch the dance floor writhe in hate.
The light in your eyes as you sang the lines
for me will never fade.
It's one of the only true, remaining things that I have left
in a world that's gone grey.
We made it out back then
just to prove that it could be done.
Are you happy?
Do you still feel loved?
Because "good enough" is never good enough.
I don't think the man that I used to be
as a boy would recognize me now,
and I can't say if that's good or it's bad,
but it's something.
Oh, it's something.
We made it out back then
just to prove that it could be done.
Are you happy?
Do you still feel loved?
Because "good enough" is never good enough.
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2. |
The Wax and the Wane
04:04
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My lips move in time, like trenches worn into the dirt.
Soft whispers rattle, clicking, bordering on thirst.
Try to hide these subtle movements. The night stays less than still.
When they chance to go unnoticed, a taunt beckons me to feel.
I can't begin to know how you wanted this to be.
All I know is nothing ever works that way.
I'm just a man in shifts condemned to kicking at the shame
of the wax and the wane.
I don't want it, but it just won't go away.
The red light flickers on in the corner of my eye.
Scream when I'm alone. When I'm not, I have to hide.
Like the photograph you see, but can never seem to catch,
there's this thing about "unsettled." I can't keep from coming back.
I can't begin to know how you wanted this to be.
All I know is nothing ever works that way.
I'm just a man in shifts condemned to kicking at the shame
of the wax and the wane.
I don't want it, but it just won't go away.
At my darkest, I'm afraid that these moments are my most defining.
Now, I know I have a place. So I know that I can keep on rising.
I found a word to name it, a disposition I'd abide.
Temper all the things you want. You can't help mine.
Just keep one eye on the sunset, and one eye on the gas.
One hand on the mirror, because we're ruined for looking back.
I can't begin to know how you wanted this to be.
All I know is nothing ever works that way.
I'm just a man in shifts condemned to kicking at the shame
of the wax and the wane.
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3. |
Wholly Redeemed
02:38
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Don't celebrate wine, but the abandon within.
The moment it becomes a chain, you must abandon it.
I've had a couple of lives, and love's a lot like that.
There's no retreat that won't malign if you won't handle it.
It's hard to admit that it's a flaw to believe
that there exists some perfect version of me.
That if I made the right choices, listened to all the right voices,
that I would be wholly redeemed.
I've tried to be righteous. I've tried to be safe.
Let the little sins wither. Let the anger take its place.
But if I tamp it down, will I grow bitter and old?
And if I let it run wild, that's how I'm seen by the world.
It's hard to admit that it's a flaw to believe
that there exists some perfect version of me.
That if I made the right choices, listened to all the right voices,
that I would be wholly redeemed.
There's no way to win
but to let go and live.
I've been afraid of what I might find if I did.
In my attempts to be right,
I've stumbled into the light -
That always being right is no way to live.
It's hard to admit that it's a flaw to believe
that there exists some perfect version of me.
That if I made the right choices, listened to all the right voices,
that I would be wholly redeemed.
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