Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing

Tom's Diner

I am sitting
In the morning
At the diner
On the corner

I am waiting
At the counter
For the man
To pour the coffee

And he fills it
Only halfway
And before
I even argue

He is looking
Out the window
At somebody
Coming in

"It is always
Nice to see you"
Says the man
Behind the counter

To the woman
Who has come in
She is shaking
Her umbrella

And I look
The other way
As they are kissing
Their hellos

I'm pretending
Not to see them
And instead
I pour the milk

I open
Up the paper
There's a story
Of an actor

Who had died
While he was drinking
It was no one
I had heard of

And I'm turning
To the horoscope
And looking
For the funnies

When I'm feeling
Someone watching me
And so
I raise my head

There's a woman
On the outside
Looking inside
Does she see me?

No she does not
Really see me
Cause she sees
Her own reflection

And I'm trying
Not to notice
That she's hitching
Up her skirt

And while she's
Straightening her stockings
Her hair
Has gotten wet

Oh, this rain
It will continue
Through the morning
As I'm listening

To the bells
Of the cathedral
I am thinking
Of your voice

And of the midnight picnic
Once upon a time
Before the rain began
I finish up my coffee

It's time to catch the train

Luka

My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes I think you've seen me before

If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble. some kind of fight
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was

I think it's because I'm clumsy
I try not to talk too loud
Maybe it's because I'm crazy
I try not to act too proud

They only hit until you cry
And after that you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore

Yes I think I'm okay
I walked into the door again
Well, if you ask that's what I'll say
And it's not your business anyway
I guess I'd like to be alone
With nothing broken, nothing thrown

Just don't ask me how I am
Just don't ask me how I am
Just don't ask me how I am

Ironbound / Fancy Poultry

In the ironbound section near Avenue L
Where the Portuguese women come to see what you sell
The clouds so low the morning so slow
As the wires cut through the sky

The beams and bridges cut the light on the ground
Into little triangles and the rails run round
Through the rust and the heat
The light and sweet coffee color of her skin

Bound up in wire and fate
Watching her walk him up to the gate
In front of the ironbound school yard.
Kids will grow like weeds on a fence

She says they look for the light they try to make sense
They come up through the cracks
Like grass on the tracks
She touches him goodbye

Steps off the curb and into the street
The blood and feathers near her feet
Into the ironbound market

In the ironbound section near Avenue L
Where the Portuguese women come to see what you sell
The clouds so low the morning so slow
As the wires cut through the sky

She stops at the stall
Fingers the ring
Opens her purse
Feels a longing

Away from the ironbound border
"Fancy poulty parts sold here
Breasts and thighs and hearts
Backs are cheap and wings are nearly free. Nearly free"

In The Eye

If you were to kill me now right here
I would still look you in the eye
And I would burn myself into your memory
As long as you were still alive

I would live inside of you
I'd make you wear me like a scar
And I would burn myself into your memory
And run through everything you are

I would not run, I would not turn
I would not hide
I would not run I would not turn
I would not hide

In the eye

If you were to kill me now right here
I would still look you in the eye
And I would burn myself into your memory
As long as you were still alive

I would not run I would not turn
I would not hide
I would not run I would not turn
I would not hide

In the eye
Look me in the eye

Night Vision

By day give thanks
By night beware
Half the world in sweetness
The other in fear

When the darkness takes you
With her hand across your face
Don't give in too quickly
Find the thing she's erased

Find the line, find the shape
Through the grain
Find the outline, things will
Tell you their name

The table. the guitar
The empty glass

All will blend together when
Daylight has passed

Find the line, find the shape
Through the grain
Find the outline, things will
Tell you their name

Now I watch you falling into sleep
Watch your fist curl against the sheet
Watch your lips fall open and your eyes dim
In blind faith

I would shelter you
Keep you in light
But I can only teach you
Night vision
Night vision
Night vision

Solitude Standing

Solitude stands by the window
She turns her head as I walk in the room
I can see by her eyes she's been waiting
Standing in the slant of the late afternoon
And she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame

Solitude stands in the doorway
And I'm struck once again by her black silhouette
By her long cool stare and her silence
I suddenly remember each time we've met
And she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame

And she says "I've come to set a twisted thing straight"
And she says "I've come to lighten this dark heart"
And she takes my wrist, I feel her imprint of fear
And I say "I've never thought of finding you here"

I turn to the crowd as they're watching
They're sitting all together in the dark in the warm
I wanted to be in there among them
I see how their eyes are gathered into one
And then she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame

And she says "I've come to set a twisted thing straight"
And she says "l've come to lighten this dark heart"
And she takes my wrist, I feel her imprint of fear
And I say "I've never thought of finding you here"

Calypso

My name is Calypso
And I have lived alone
I live on an island
And I waken to the dawn

A long time ago
I watched him struggle with the sea
I knew that he was drowning
And I brought him into me

Now today
Come morning light
He sails away
After one last night I let him go

My name is Calypso
My garden overflows
Thick and wild and hidden
Is the sweetness there that grows

My hair it blows long
As I sing into the wind
My name is Calypso
And I have lived alone

I live on an island I tell of nights
Where I could taste the salt on his skin
Salt of the waves
And of tears

And though he pulled away
I kept him here for years
I let him go

My name is Calypso
I have let him go
In the dawn he sails away
To be gone forever more

And the waves will take him in again
But he'll know their ways now
I will stand upon the shore
With a clean heart

And my song in the wind
The sand will sting my feet
And the sky will burn
It's a lonely time ahead

I do not ask him to return
I let him go
I let him go

Language

If language were liquid
It would be rushing in
Instead here we are
In a silence more eloquent

Than any word could ever be
These words are too solid
They don't move fast enough
To catch the blur in the brain
That flies by and is gone

Gone
Gone
Gone

I'd like to meet you
In a timeless, placeless place
Somewhere out of context
And beyond all consequences

Let's go back to the building
(Words are too solid)
On Little West Twelfth
It is not far away
(They don't move fast enough)
And the river is there
And the sun and the spaces
Are all laying low
(To catch the blur in the brain)
And we'll sit in the silence
(That flies by and is)

That comes rushing in and is
Gone
(Gone)
I won't use words again
They don't mean what I meant
They don't say what I said
They're just the crust of the meaning
With realms underneath

Never touched
Never stirred
Never even moved through

If language were liquid
It would be rushing in
Instead here we are
In a silence more eloquent
Than any word could ever be
And is gone
Gone
Gone
And is gone

Gypsy

You come from far away
With pictures in your eyes
Of coffeeshops and morning streets
In the blue and silent sunrise

But night is the cathedral
Where we recognized the sign
We strangers know each other now
As part of the whole design

Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat

You are the jester of this courtyard
With a smile like a girl's
Distracted by the women
With the dimples and the curls

By the pretty and the mischievous
By the timid and the blessed
By the blowing skirts of ladies
Who promise to gather you to their breast

Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat

You have hands of raining water
And that earring in your ear
The wisdom on your face
Denies the number of your years

With the fingers of the potter
And the laughing tale of the fool
The arranger of disorder
With your strange and simple rules

Yes now I've met me another spinner
Of strange and gauzy threads
With a long and slender body
And a bump upon the head

Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat

With a long and slender body
And the sweetest softest hands
And we'll blow away forever soon
And go on to different lands

And please do not ever look for me
But with me you will stay
And you will hear yourself in song
Blowing by one day

Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat

Wooden Horse (Caspar Hauser's Song)

I came out of the darkness
Holding one thing
A small white wooden horse
I'd been holding inside

And when I'm dead
If you could tell them this
That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive

In the night the walls disappeared
In the day they returned
"I want to be a rider like my father"
Were the only words I could say

And when I'm dead
If you could tell them this
That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive

Alive
And I fell under
A moving piece of sun
Freedom

I came out of the darkness
Holding one thing
I know I have a power
I am afraid I may be killed

But when I'm dead
If you could tell them this
That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive

Alive

Suzanne Vega - Solitude Stading

Tom's Diner

Luka

Ironbound / Fancy Poultry

In The Eye

Night Vision

Solitude Standing

Calypso

Language

Gypsy

Wooden Horse (Caspar Hauser's Song)

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