VS. CHILDREN TOM JUSTICE, THE CHOIR BOY ROBBER, APPREHENDED AT ACE HARDWARE IN LIBERTYVILLE, IL Steelman frame in a creek bed took the money & you fled counted months til they found you they had your bike they were bound to 26 from here to home 26 no gun just notes 26 without a shot that's more than Bonnie & Clyde got you know they called you the Choir Boy before they had any hints that you only ever pressed your palms so you wouldn't leave prints don't they say you can't go home Thanksgiving you should have known read your rights & cuffed face down in front of Ace Hardware in your hometown order called & they read your name on your feet as judgment came all those times they thought you were praying Tom you should've been praying you know they called you the Choir Boy the way you cleared those safes but you only ever bowed your head to keep your face off the tapes & Tom I heard you were smiling when the feds rushed in was it a kind of relief to pay for your sin OPTIMIST VS. THE SILENT ALARM (WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN) we're skeletons of cigarettes & empty cans & bottles & we tear out of the parking lot the engine at full throttle & we planned a route with all right turns so lights won't get us caught we got a mess of cash in duffel bags & every penny's hot well hallelujah well hallelujah oh & we're laughing through the fear that we'll never make the clear oh & you've never looked so dear it's the end of our career we'll ditch the car in Wisconsin & hide out in the trees & I know a dude in Madison who owes some favors to me with the money in the back seat baby we could buy a house & raise a little family on Schlitz & Mickey Mouse well hallelujah well hallelujah oh & we're laughing through the fear that we'll never make the clear oh & you've never looked so dear it's the end of our career NATURAL LIGHT I got some news on you from a friend you're in Charlotte again teaching Spanish at high school he said you're going by Joy you cut your hair like a boy & you don't talk to your old friends I found a picture from before the fight we're in natural light & you're sitting on my lap like everything's alright I've walked around with you on my mind the names we used at the time you know I've changed myself since then I've thought on things that we said what if we'd had the kid I guess he'd be 15 I found a picture from before the fight we're in natural light & you're sitting on my lap like everything's alright TRAVELING SALESMAN'S YOUNG WIFE HOME ALONE ON CHRISTMAS IN MONTPELIER, VT here comes the frost that freezes every year shutter windows hang the Advent calendar what are you doing on your own with frozen ears I know we're changing like the trees in Montpelier you took a job that put you on the road for days & weeks in motels' sleepy TV glow with static filtering through pay phones in the snow it drowns your home by Christmases & love you sos & all our promises come so easy they fill distances til our next meeting but you're always off the phone long before I'd prefer to be & I know that we should get some money saved I've felt the kicking growing in me every day oh we'll live fat & happy when you get home you will say but I'd eat beans if you'd just stay & all our promises are so fleeting when all I really want is you close to me but you were already out the door by the time that occurred to me MAN O' WAR waded out into the tide stung by jellyfish & died left a wife & child behind ages 36 & 9 Christmas morning pictures fading tinsel glare Kim how long you gonna stare never sleep without a light hate aquariums alright older boyfriends all your life & usually they have a wife blame yourself blame your mother blame the sea blame a lover blame psychiatry to never know what kind of man your father'd be how you'd wished he'd kept a diary NORTHFIELD, MN you took the baby to your mother's end of June & kissed her for the last time on the bed in your old room then up to Northfield in the Fairmont just you two you always drove the getaway so you wouldn't have to shoot & after a couple jobs like clockwork where not one of you had slipped you were on your way back to Wisconsin hit a deer & flipped came to on the pavement bleeding hard from the crash calling to no one he was as gone as the cash but there was the Ford flipped under an overpass the baby seat strapped in the back the windshield smashed & red streaked as an exploded dye pack & so you crawled in & you closed the door & laid on what was now the floor & swore that you would figure out the rest when it was morning KILLERS oh my god what if we had an accident oh my god til you're dead that's how long you're a parent til you're dead you know I meant what I said I think you'll be a good mother but honey look at us now we barely support each other take the pill I know it makes you crazy take the pill call in sick I'll get some movies call in sick I know your mom was your age when she had your brother but honey look our lives how could we support another we could be killers just for one night HARSH THE HERALD ANGELS SING how harsh the herald angels sing I've been puking my guts all morning oh to bear the hex of unfairer sex it's difficult & it's boring I guess I just quit drinking I guess I just quit smoking guess I'll need some names Alan William or James doctor tell me you're joking I take the bus to the free clinic on Clemens with my headphones on & no music please don't sit next to me Glad Lee the Cross-Eyed Bear walks into a bar she says you don't know how lucky you men are the tenants who live below me they pretend they don't know me coz they don't see a ring now they know everything they whisper & don't hello me but talk your shit man I don't care it's _____ for a boy for a girl it's Claire YOU WERE ALONE you were alone I saw you from that second story window no sign of Jerome he burned your would'ves right down to the cinders so why'd you go the party's full of friends that you lost in the break up did you think he'd show & be impressed by a new dress & your sister's make-up you were alone canvassing to save your reputation sobbing to Simone about how he up & left no explanation & how you drove out to his place to pound the door & wake the neighbors til they yelled he ain't home now go & get some sleep do us a favor you were alone hiding from the rain in the gazebo shivered to the bone & hoping for a taxi to retrieve you well if you need a ride home I'm on my way up to Orinda & you can wear my coat WHITE JETTA been this way for almost all my life wasn't born here Mom & me moved here when I was 5 these Kansas City boys are dull as butter knives had this little car since I was 17 the tape is busted got a boom box in the back seat blasting Misfits all up & down these streets to stay the same to never change to stay the same to never change the college kids in KC all leave in the fall don't have time for letters or long distance calls if friend you leave then friend you're dead to me Mom's been sick now for a long time she says she hopes I'll want a family after she's died she says the less you feel like a child the more you'll want a child to stay the same to never change to stay the same to never change to stay the same to never change to stay the same to never change all lyircs by Owen Ashworth