1. The Man at the Television
Refrain: No one no one no one ever really knows
Blue light in the living room
She’s in the kitchen putting things away
The anchor speaks of fire and ruin
Same as every other day
His daughter calls from down the hall
Something about tomorrow
He answers in his father’s voice
The one that hides the sorrow
No one no one no one ever really knows
The cities burn or have burned
Or will burn it’s all the same
A woman stands before the ash
Her face has left the frame
He sits where he has always sat
Receives the nightly news
A man still kneeling at the altar
Of a faith he cannot use
No one no one no one ever really knows
When did it leave
When did it go
The coffee’s warm
The beds still hold the shape of bodies
No one no one no one ever really knows
He watches
He does not watch
There is no difference anymore
No one no one no one ever really knows
No one no one no one ever really knows
Does this land? Too much? Too little? What needs to shift?
2. The Woman in the Parking Lot
Refrain: Witness what no one wants to see
Parking lot the engine’s cold
The milk is low back home
Her daughter has a fever now
Her thumb can’t leave her phone
The man on screen holds up his light
Recording what comes next
They told us be a witness
Document and don’t forget
Witness what no one wants to see
A woman falls he moves toward her
The only way he knows
Seven on him ten shots in him
That’s how the story goes
Between the shove and volley
Something left her standing there
She felt it go she felt it go
Into the winter air
Witness what no one wants to see
They’ll say gunman
They’ll say massacre
They’ll say feared for our lives
The video won’t matter
The truth won’t survive
Witness what no one wants to see
The parking lot
The phone gone dark
The milk still low at home
Her daughter waiting
Witness what no one wants to see
Witness what no one wants to see
She does not move
3. The Mother and Daughter
Refrain: We’ve been burning so long we’ve learned to cook in the flames
She holds the phone across the table
Mama look at this
Her mother takes it watches
Hands it back and does not flinch
The knife rocks steady on the board
The onions hit the pot
You want me to be surprised baby
Surprised is what I’m not
We’ve been burning so long we’ve learned to cook in the flames
Philando in the car
Tamir was just a child
Breonna in her bed
George called mama as he died
They had the videos then too
The marches and the vows
Same pot same stove same onions
Same news different now
We’ve been burning so long we’ve learned to cook in the flames
What do we do mama
What we always do
Bury who we can
Raise who we can
Keep the soup on for you
And the soul mama
What about the soul
You call it back every night baby
Or you learn to live with the hole
We’ve been burning so long we’ve learned to cook in the flames
We’ve been burning so long we’ve learned to cook in the flames
Now you staying for dinner or not
4. The Young ICE Recruit
Refrain: The door locks behind you but you never heard the click
He joined up for the benefits
His mama’s hands won’t still
The doctor said degenerative
And nothing else would foot the bill
Six months of training
He was good at standing tall
Liked the way the uniform fit
Liked belonging to it all
The door locks behind you but you never heard the click
Minneapolis his third run
He was standing on the line
Watching the watchers watching
Everything was fine
Then the man stepped toward the woman
Toward not away
That’s the mathematics of threat
That’s what they trained him to obey
The door locks behind you but you never heard the click
His hands on the man’s back
Blue shirt then not blue
He waited for the feeling
That would tell him what to do
Nothing came
Nothing came
His hands shook like his mama’s
But the feeling never came
The door locks behind you but you never heard the click
He called her that night
Said everything was fine
She said the surgery’s scheduled
She said son I’m so proud you’re mine
The door locks behind you but you never heard the click
The door locks behind you but you never heard the click
5. The Drifter
Refrain: Words a sound to make the questions that never stop
She left on a Tuesday
No one knows what weather came
Had a desk and a login
Had a mug that held her name
A man texted what’s for dinner
She read it put it down
Walked out through the parking lot
Kept walking out of town
Words a sound to make the questions that never stop
Eleven months or thirteen
She has given up the count
Gray stations gray benches
Gray coffee by the ounce
The waitress calls her honey
Calls her sweetheart calls her dear
Words that ask for nothing
Words that disappear
Words a sound to make the questions that never stop
Where you headed
Somewhere
When you coming home
Soon
What you looking for out there
Words a sound to make the questions that never stop
A body following a soul
That’s always one town ahead
Or one town behind
Or nowhere
Words a sound to make the questions that never stop
Words a sound to make the questions that never stop
She watches
She does not watch
The window holds the land and lets it go
6. The Man at the Window
Refrain: Knowing changes nothing
Forty-second floor
A view of all the green
A report sits on his desk
Asking what does the ending mean
He asked a simple question
Paid good money for the truth
How long have we got left
How long until we lose
Knowing changes nothing
His daughter’s turning eleven
Wants to study the sea
Coral reef up on her wall
Full of things that used to be
Saturday’s the aquarium
He’ll watch her point and smile
Say yes and wow and look at that
Walk beside her down the aisle
Knowing changes nothing
His father was a teacher
Graded papers every night
Drove a Corolla till it died
Believed the future would be bright
The numbers climb
The phone still buzzes
He should warn someone
But what’s the use of
Knowing changes nothing
The park is green
The sky is blue
He will not tell her
He will not tell anyone
Knowing changes nothing
Knowing changes nothing
He stands at the window
He does not move
7. The Boy and His Mother
Refrain: It will always be enough
The boy knows which dumpsters
Empty out on which days
Which shelter has the Tuesday beds
Which church won’t make you pray
His mama does the best she can
Her voice goes soft and high
Yes ma’am and please and thank you
He watches from nearby
It will always be enough
At night she curls around him
A wall against the cold
He feels her breathing catch sometimes
He’s nine but he feels old
He had a room once
Carpet on the floor
A drawer that held his things
He don’t remember what they’re for
It will always be enough
She talks about when
When the voucher comes through
When is a place they walk toward
But it never comes in view
He doesn’t wish on stars no more
Wishing’s for boys with rooms
Tomorrow there’ll be problems
He’ll solve them like he always do
It will always be enough
It will always be enough
The stars get through sometimes
He doesn’t wish
He just looks
It will always be enough
8. The Man on the Freeway
Refrain: A door opened he never knew was locked
Ten thousand times the 10 eastbound
Five lanes of brake light red
No music and no podcasts
Just the silence in his head
His blinker’s been on half a mile
No one lets him in
That’s the rule out here
Everyone’s just trying to win
A door opened he never knew was locked
Then a woman in a gray sedan
She sees him sitting there
She slows and flashes once
A hand lifts in the air
Go ahead
He merges and he waves
She nods and looks away
It was nothing much to her
Just an ordinary day
A door opened he never knew was locked
He drives the last three miles
With something in his chest
It is not joy it is not grief
It’s the space where those might rest
She did not have to
The freeway don’t require
A stranger letting strangers in
But she did it anyway
A door opened he never knew was locked
He parks and kills the engine
Sits there in the dark
Something cracking open
A feeling like a spark
A door opened he never knew was locked
A door opened he never knew was locked
That is enough for tonight
9. The Woman in the Garden
Refrain: She hears what she always has always heard
A hundred times around the loop
Three miles because they said
Earbuds in and podcast on
Filling up her head
Today the battery goes dead
The quiet is too loud
She keeps walking anyway
Under leaf and cloud
She hears what she always has always heard
A hedge she’s never noticed
A garden hiding there
She stops beside the lavender
And something fills the air
The bees
Dozens hundreds
Moving through the blooms
A hum like the earth breathing
In the morning room
She hears what she always has always heard
A bird calls then another
They don’t sing for anyone
They sing because the morning came
They sing because of sun
She stands there
Just a creature
Breathing in the light
For a moment she’s not separate
For a moment something’s right
She hears what she always has always heard
She takes the earbuds out
Puts them in her pocket
The hum is underneath it all
She cannot stop or lock it
She hears what she always has always heard
She hears what she always has always heard
She cannot unhear it now
10. The Pull
Refrain: He has stopped pretending he would not ever go
He wakes up with a word
A name inside his mouth
A town in New Mexico
Four hundred souls down south
He’s never been there
Doesn’t know a single soul
But the name won’t leave him be
The name has made him whole
He has stopped pretending he would not ever go
He looks at maps at night now
The highways heading down
This is foolish he knows
Chasing dreams to some small town
But reason got him here
The apartment and the silence
A life that looks like life
But holds no evidence
He has stopped pretending he would not ever go
He calls his sister up
Asks about their grandmother’s tales
Where’d the family come from
Before Detroit and its travails
New Mexico she says
A town near the border
He tells her the name
She goes quiet then and slower
That’s the one she says
That’s the one
How did you know
He has stopped pretending he would not ever go
The pull don’t explain itself
Don’t promise anything
Just says here
This direction
He has stopped pretending he would not ever go
He has stopped pretending he would not ever go
11. The Signs
Refrain: Listen, the world is saying something new
Three crows on the wire
She’s never seen them before
Now they’re everywhere she looks
Three crows nothing more
She don’t believe in omens
Believes in what is weighed and measured
But the crows keep appearing
Like a dark and patient treasure
Listen, the world is saying something new
A book falls off the shelf
She picks it up puts it back
It falls again
Desert on the cover
A question printed black
She buys it doesn’t read it
Puts it by her bed
A dare sitting on the nightstand
Full of words unsaid
Listen, the world is saying something new
Her mother calls says visit
There’s something here for you
What is it mama
I don’t know yet
But it’s yours it’s coming through
Listen, the world is saying something new
The crows will sit tomorrow
The book will wait
The hum beneath the silence
Says it’s not too late
Listen, the world is saying something new
Listen, the world is saying something new
She is learning to listen
She does not know what she will hear
Eleven songs. Eleven refrains. Eleven doorways.
How do they feel together?