Brooklyn's on Fire

by Nicole Atkins

Friday nights on the seventh floor
Paperbacks on the corner store
Looking over the ledge
The sidewalk traffic starts to spread
Summer's begun across the bay
And no bit of silence remains

Oh, Brooklyn's on fire
And fills July hearts with desire
Sleep will not come until the morn
'Cause tonight your memories are born

And the band's not begun just yet
Fifty names you're bound to forget
Black and blue on the lakes
Wear badges from happier days
Late in the night, in '84
Walked in through the old out door

I'm caught in the way
Of tears from much happier days
When we were young and unafraid
Of stupid mistakes that we made

Oh, Brooklyn's on fire
And fills July hearts with desire
Sleep will not come until the morn
'Cause tonight your memories are born

Mending Wall

by Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'

There Is a Reason

by Randall Goodgame

Late at night I wonder why, sometimes I wonder why
Sometimes I'm so tired I don't even try
Seems everything around me fails
But I hold onto the promise
That there is a reason

Late at night the darkness makes it hard to see
The history of the saints who've gone in front of me
Through famine, plague, and disbelief
His hand was still upon them
'Cause there is a reason

He makes all things good
There's a time to live, a time to die
A time for wondering, to wonder why
'Cause there is a reason
There is a reason

I believe that God who sent His only Son
To walk upon this world and give His life for us
With blood and tears on a long dark night
And know that he believed
There is a reason

The lonely nights, the broken hearts
The widow's mite in the rich man's hand
And the continent whose blood becomes a traitor
A child afraid to close his eyes
The prayers that seem unanswered
There is a reason

He makes all things good
There's a time to live, a time to die
A time for wondering, to wonder why
'Cause there is a reason
There is a reason

Brick

by Ben Folds

Six AM, day after Christmas
I throw some clothes on in the dark
The smell of cold, car seat is freezing
The world is sleeping, I am numb

Up the stairs to her apartment
She is balled up on the couch
Her mom and dad went down to Charlotte
They're not home to find us out

And we drive
Now that I have found someone
I'm feeling more alone
Than I ever have before

She's a brick, and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast, and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick, and I'm drowning slowly

They call her name at 7:30
I pace around the parking lot
And I walk down to buy her flowers
And sell some gifts that I got

Can't you see
It's not me you're dying for?
Now she's feeling more alone
Then she ever has before

As weeks went by
It showed that she was not fine
They told me, 'Son it's time to tell the truth'
And she broke down
And I broke down
'Cause I was tired of lying

Driving back to her apartment
For the moment we're alone
Yeah she's alone, and I'm alone
Now I know it

She's a brick, and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast, and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick, and I'm drowning slowly

Why Worry

by Mark Knopfler

I see this world has made you sad
Some people can be bad
Things they do, the things they say
I'll wipe away those bitter tears
I'll chase away those restless fears
That turn your blue skies into grey

Why worry?
There should be laughter after pain
There should be sunshine after rain
These things have always been the same
So why worry now?

When I get down I turn to you
And you make sense of what I do
I know it isn't hard to say
Just when this world seems mean and cold
Our love comes shining red and gold
And all the rest is by the way

Why worry?
There should be laughter after pain
There should be sunshine after rain
These things have always been the same
So why worry now?

God Says Nothing Back

by Jakob Dylan

Seems like the world's gone underground
Where no gods or heroes dare to go down
As teardrops from a hole in heaven come
Overhead like ravens dropping down like bombs
Through the morning's silver-frosted glow
God says nothing back, but I told you so

God bless the void of my daydreams
Head back in the snow, making angel wings
As slow motion dancing lights at dawn
Sail beneath a burning yellow sun
I'm calling out from the deep ends of my bones
Time says nothing back, but I told you so

Still waters rising in my mind
Black and deep, smoke behind my eyes
Last night I could not sleep at all
I hallucinated that you were in my arms
To be in your heart I failed my own
Love says nothing back, but I told you so

Still here reclimbing every rung
Someone saw something, someone speak up
Back over the rotted bridge I cross
Open up these graves, let these bodies talk
Buried under leaves blood red and gold
Death says nothing back, but I told you so

That Man I Shot

by Patterson Hood

That man I shot, he was trying to kill me
He was trying to kill me, he was trying to kill me
That man I shot, I didn't know him
Was doing my job, maybe so was he

That man I shot, I was in his homeland
I was there to help him, but he didn't want me there
I did not hate him, I still don't hate him
He was trying to kill me, and I had to take him down

That man I shot, I still can see him
When I should be sleeping, tossing and turning
He's looking at me, eyes looking through me
Broke out in cold sweats when I see him standing there

That man I shot, shot not in anger
There's no denying it was in self-defense
But when I close my eyes, I still can see him
I feel his last breath in the calm dead of night

That man I shot, he was trying to kill me
He was trying to kill me, he was trying to kill me
Sometimes I wonder if I should be there
I hold my little ones until he disappears

I hold my little ones until he disappears
I hold my little ones until we disappear
And I'm not crazy, or at least I never was
But there's this big thing I can't get rid of

That man I shot, did he have little ones?
That he was so proud of? that he won't see grow up?
Was walking down his street, maybe I was in his yard
Was trying to do good, I just don't understand