And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin
Fighting for a system built to fail
Spooning water from their broken vessels
As far as I can see there is no land

Oh my god, the water's all around us
Oh my god, it's all around

And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin
The lords of war just profit from decay
And trade their children's promise for the jingle
The way we trade our hard earned time for pay

Oh my god, the water's cold and shapeless
Oh my god, it's all around
Oh my god, life is cold and formless
Oh my god, it's all around

Lost my love before her time, oo oo
Lost my love before her time, oo oo
On the way to Ohio On the way to Ohio

Now every new love is just a shadow, oo oo
Every new love is just a shadow, oo oo

'Cause once you've known love you don't know how to find love, oo oo
Yeah once you've found love you don't know how to find new love
All the way to Ohio All the way to Ohio

Heard her voice come through the pines in Ohio
I heard her voice singing in the pines in Ohio

She sang bless your soul you crossed that line to Ohio
Bless your soul you crossed that line oo oo
All the way to Ohio
All the way to Ohio

They say the sky's the limit
But the sky's about to fall
Down come all them record books cradle and all
They say before he bit it
That the boxer felt no pain
But somewhere there's a gamblin' man
With a ticket in the rain

Mary Anne, I know I'm a long shot
But Mary Anne, what else have you got
I am a ticket taker, many tickets have I torn
And I will be your arc, we will float above the storm

Many years have passed in this river town
I've sailed through many traps
I keep a stock of weapons should society collapse
I keep a stock of ammo
One of oil and one of gold
I keep a place for Mary Anne
Soon she will come home

CHORUS
CHORUS

You'll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
Hear the whistle blowing put a tear into your eye
You hear the distant love song but widows know the lie
The horizon is a beltway, the skyline is on fire.

The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
The horizon is a beltway and the skyline is on fire

You come up from the lowlands to the city on the air
Where pilrims and commissioners currate Christian fare
From Havisu to Brownsville feel the long unbroken stare
I wonder what it smells like in that city on the air

You'll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
Just the same blue love song made my grand dad cry
You'll hear the whistle blowing put a tear drop in your eye
The horizon is a beltway, and the skyline is on fire.

The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
You'll hear the distant love song, when the skyline is on fire
The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
The horizon is a beltway and the skyline is on fire

This old house stood empty now for fifteen years or more
Willows falls half way to meet the weeds around the door
Time throws up her curtain and we know not who we are
The horizon is a beltway, the skyline is on fire

You'll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
Hear the whistle blowing put a tear drop in your eye
Jagged as the jaw bone once the flesh expires
The horizon is a beltway the skyline is on fire

God cage the songbird
Before the feathers run brown
God bar the windows
That we may though hollow be sound

And this island be shackled to her waters
Here we vow never to change
Here we will stand at last for something
With no desire to pretend

Send up our prayers to gilded idols
Their names etched in heartwood of palm
And scatter the ashes of the contracts
Their freedom so hollow a song

God cage the songbird
Before the feathers run brown
God bar the windows
That we may though hollow be sound

And the street lamp will be tethered to her station
The poor man be tethered to the flesh
The wise man be tethered to his wisdom
The mother be tethered to her creche

Was your hunger your awareness of salvation
As your chances go slipping to the past
You’re tortured by the changing of the seasons
And each grain of sand in the glass

God cage the songbird
Before the feathers run brown
God bar the windows
That we may though hollow be sound

If yor pilot light should die
Do not quake and do not bark
You will find the spark

If your tree should bare no fruit
Do not turn and do not spill
You are beautiful

If your clarinet should break
Do not cry a million lakes
Do not cry a million lakes

When the winds surround your house
Do not twist and do not shout
Wait it out

If your hand should lose it's grip
Do not tremble do not sweat
For where then would you get

You have got the looks my dear
To make a mountain shake
Imagine me

You have got the voice my love
To melt a lake of ice
Imagine me

If your heart is unemployed
Do not rush but do not stall
For I am waiting

Throw up your voice but not you mind
While them agents of change go monopolize
Their colors and their faces are just shades of the same
All lost in the game

And we don't need no personal saviors here
Just a warm hearth and water. It's purely biological
No posturing mannequin man or woman
Shall receive my hand

Among all you angels is a champion angel
Among all you devils there's a free soul
Up from the disenfranchised the engine cries
Up from the circle there's a hole

The child insubordinate disrupts the pecking order
So go marry young while you can
‘Cause the weave of the rug and the cut of the throne
Testify before the ocean's open hand

I promise you this promise we are not alone
But why is it I alone that promise this
Deny the forces that would hurry men
If you still can

CHORUS

We come now to a fracture in the road
Here time has taken her toll
The endless freezing and the thawing of the heart
Would eventually divide us apart

What's that you found in the pocket of your coat
Looks like a small sentiment that she wrote
Don't be my personal savior I would not be saved
I chose to walk alone

CHORUS

To them ghosts in the train yard
All them ghosts in my drink
Your money's no good here just write one about me

And when you go, where the winds are strong
When you go where flowers bend
Please take along all the best of my luck and come back unchanged
Your demons all tamed
Your flowers uncut

And when you go where the winds are strong
Where soldiers carve their stones
Please take along all the best of my luck and come back unchanged
Your demons all tamed
Your flowers uncut

To them ghosts that write history books
To them ghosts that write songs
Everyone asks would you write one about me

To them ghosts in the train yard
All them ghosts in my drink
Your money's no good here just write one about me

When I go, when I go
Sure don't know, where I'm going
I look up high, I look down low
Sure don't know where I'm going when I go

Do you job and I'll do mine
I'll do my best to hold the line
Do my best like Charlie said
You don't eat here, you're not to sleep, you hold the line

Oh my God, Oh my God, Charlie Darwin where are you now
I set these tiresome codes down where you lay
Oh my God, Oh my God, it ain't nothing but the cold hard ground
My better half will stay but I must go

12. "To Ohio" (reprise)

Tell me who was it told you 'bout the broken bones
The broken bones in the sky
'Cause I've been all over the whole goddamn world
And over the world am I

Now the moon it ain't nothing but an old rotten bone
Hung from the ceiling so high
It reminds kids to grow and reminds them to dream
But over the world am I

So my friends if you're worried
Don't worry about me
The grasses are green here
The winters are mild
And the hunger is passing
It's just a sensation
And over the world am I

Up in the city it's panic and toil
In every fiber and vein
All dressed up like kings in their robes of desire
The poets are going insane

But I've been to the ocean her salts they do heal
And washed me anew in her tides
And now I ride easy down her cool wide waves
And over the world am I

The color of your bones it was yellowed by the sun
Ain't no reason why the drummer keeps on drumming on his
drum
On his drum, we are only for awhile

And the truth is like an onion you can skin it layer by layer
When you come upon the center you might find there's
nothing there
And we are only for awhile

The sun is like the truth it'll burn the mortal man
If he tries to look upon it if he tries to understand
He might learn that we are only for awhile

Even my guitar listen while she gently weeps
Now I will not play forever so why would I play for keeps
Don't play for keeps we are only for awhile

Down down down down
The wicked candle burns to the ground
Down down down down
The wicked candle burns

The body is stone
but the soul is made of cloud
And it has no home but to cry out loud
We run and we run
Try to cover lots of ground
But in the end
Down down

Down down down down
Burns the cigarette to your mouth
It felt like something coming
But it never came around
And all the while
Down down

The bottles are all empty
And the moon is still
Above the folks that sell the weapons and the folks that kill
Are you a coward or a convict?
Is it hard to tell?
Both the lonesome and the restless are sleeping well

Bless your gilded tombstone heart
What's yours is mine
Bless the seams that came apart
What's yours is mine

Bless the time that made us grow
Right out the dragon's fiery door
Bless the toll the monster soars
What's yours is mine and mine is yours

Bless the drinks we younger raised
And bless the debts our hearts must weigh
Bless the toy guns in their slings
The boys have thought of everything
Bless the weary homebound horse
What's yours is mine and mine is yours

You replaced and I remained a sheltered page
No nevermind,
What's mine is yours and yours of course is mine

Bless your helpless drunken cry
What's yours is mine
Bless the fire warm and bright
What's yours is mine
Bless the words that meant farewell
The winds that finally filled your sails
Bless those tethers when they tore
What's yours is mine and mine is yours

(by Dan Lefkowitz)
She left me here with breakfast in bed
Oatmeal with sugar and a hard-boiled egg
The note on the dresser said I'll be back by three
I'm going uptown, did you need anything?

And don't forget to comb your hair
I'll be back by three, I hope you're still there

Now the kitchen is empty and the dishwater's cold
The newspaper on the table is three days old
I've read every book on the living room shelf
I'm losing my mind in this goddamn house

A dying dog can smell the rain
A weary horse can hide the pain
When the riverbeds dry just hold your tongue
Folks dig the lies they hang upon

Here in Nashville

Our best laid plans our patient dreams
Fell through our hands between the seams

When the riverbed's dry keep it all inside
Grow your hair and hide folks dig the lies

I saw a crow, feeding a crow

A small scrap of metal from a toilet hole

I've seen the birds, circling your big Southern eyes
What could they want, it's no big surprise

I've seen the birds parting your cracked country mouth
There's no wonder my love what this is about

Our nature's a monster, we pull and we pry
What will you find?
A crowbar, a hammer, a delicate word
Will open the door to the scavenger bird

Accept no presents for each is a lie
Whose depth you will know by the strength of the shine
The ring on your finger it ain't worth the change
You send down the wishing well, bring me some rain
The fields have gone dry, blackbirds are starving for love
Of any old kind
Run your long fingers through the powdered earth
It's you who brings the rain

I saw a crow with the cock of his head
He solved a great puzzle and hustled for bread
A crowbar, a hammer, a delicate word
Opens the door to the scavenger bird

1971, hung up a chicken bone
On the old chandelier at the sawdust saloon
The medical exam had cleared me to fight
My mother said stay and I thought that I might
My brother said stay that's when I left
Never know who might be called in your stead
So I showed up on time to meet my platoon
And hung up a bone in the sawdust saloon

With Jimmy Tassone, I used to play ball
Now he sits here beside me and talks like a man
He looks like a man, says he shoots like a man
But no medal of honor will make his Mom move back in
So he said my drunk father, I'll be back for you soon
But Jimmy still hangs in the sawdust saloon

And I love my country with a deep frenzied love
Her legs spread out wide her nose turned up
So I showed up on time to meet my platoon
And hung up a bone in the sawdust saloon

The candle in the window, the coin in the well
The break in your voice, the crack in the bell
All raise up a round, without saying a word
To them old dusty bones and the good men that served

Senorita, with your dust brown skin
Where you going with that thing up your sleeve
I've heard about your ways and I know I cannot win
Senorita, with your dust brown skin

There you go again with the devil in your eyes
You slide away so softly and so quiet
I know all your lies, still I think that I might try it
Senorita, you got the devil in your eye

And I'd follow you forever, through the smoky Pyrenees
Buying you cheap liquor if I can't provide a feast
I'd be lost without you, I don't know who I am
Senorita with your dust brown skin

There you go again and I forget your name
Not for time's passing but for sorrow
And now you're coming back, my lord my poise contain
Senorita, I forget your name

There you come again with the devil in your eyes
Once I swore never more to buy it
But now you're coming back and I'm afraid that I might try it
Senorita, you've got the devil in your eyes

The rip-rap will hold
Though the cold wind blows
And tomorrow we'll walk in the morning

The clouds they will clear
There's nothing to fear
And tomorrow we'll walk in the morning

And I have a promise for you
All your days you'll not go down in the ground
When you sing, I will sing
When you run, I will not judge you
And you'll never go down in the ground

One day we'll climb out
Of this coal mountain town
Pack the truck and head off to the ocean

Sleep now my child
Don't you fear the wild wind
Tomorrow we'll walk in the morning

*thanks Lefty