Rosebud Came A Dreamin'

Rosebud came a dreamin'
'Round my psyche the other day
her man had lost his touch
up the mountain way

The people he had spoken for
had all but moved on
Some cynic proles leaving him
without a leg to stand on

Chorus: Can you help me my dear
Can your id do for me
What all the yellow press headlines
Failed to set free
Can you help me my dear
Can your soul do for me
What all the yellow press headlines
Failed to do for me

I'm buried in snow
An avalanche this morning
Took all of my desires
left them scattered and longing

The summit's message was stale
The point of view weak
Your folks need a new excuse
To turn the other cheek

C

I'm wiped out
I'm wiped out
These rumors he's spreading
are clearing me out

Rosebud cried at breakfast,
A sled of crystal tears,
Sitting as a sheltered myth
In a basement all these years

Hear her man chortle
As he rallies a dying crowd
from saying some unspoken truths
just a little bit too loud

© 2009 Helen Sventitsky-Rother; Rights Reserved via Creative Commons

Mythical Haters

Who are these Mythical Haters
These virtual enemies
Digital vampires out of the dark
That try to bring you to your knees

Faceless names point their arrows
at your hyped-up point of view
hiding behind a shroud of numbers
and you don't what to do

Chorus: Take it from me, babe
You got yourself into this mess
It ain't worth it
to be less than your best
with the monsters who bless this set

Show me all of these mythical haters
from childhood memories
Kids who'd throw the sticks at you
while hanging from the trees

Now you're caught up with the Joneses
In all your flame war flair
Just another skirmish of logic
In anonymous warfare

Chorus

Nothing harder than Turning it off
and then just walking away
But you've got to put some diss off
until another day

For your life is open to you
And the road is long and wide
why waste time fighting with demons
who have course to run and hide

interlude

Aren't you tired of mythical haters
These beasts from virtual freeze
Digital vampires out of the dark
That try to bring you to your knees

Spending your time volleying filth
as monkeys at a zoo
hiding behind a shroud of numbers
and you don't what to do

Chorus

© 2009 Helen Sventitsky-Rother; Rights Reserved via Creative Commons

Back To Aromas

Back to Aromas

I left my job
as a numbers gauge
in the dying embers
Of the dot com rage

Head at my heels
Head at my heels

Back to Aromas I go
Back to Aromas I go

Jumped in an RV
To start a new life
On the side of 101
Where the trucks jackknife

It's a different scene
It's a different scene

Back to Aromas I go
Back to Aromas I go

I met up with Bob
retired from the force
Giving kids rides
In his skyrise house

I went as well
I went as well

Back To Aromas I go
Back to Aromas I go

My neighbor, she married
For money one time
Now she's happy
With her SS line

Wealthy in mind
Wealthy in mind

Back to Aromas I go
Back to Aromas I go

My best friend Matt
He patrols the park
Riding his wheelchair
Long after dark

Hanging his gun
Hanging his gun

Back to Aromas I go
Back to Aromas I go

Riding holidays
On my red motorbike
Passing jams on
San Jose turnpikes

Wind in my face
Wind in my face

Back to Aromas I go
Back to Aromas I go

Then one day
Contracts met the clock
Time to hitch up
and head off the block

Time to move on
But, before too long

It's back to Aromas I go
Back to Aromas I go

© 2009 Helen Sventitsky-Rother; Rights Reserved via Creative Commons

Too Many Ghosts

Too many ghosts
are coming back to haunt me
one of them is you
and your hardened sobriety

another is your best friend
you cut in clear-eyed glee
one more is your bitter ex
who has it in for me

C: I had to do
What I had to do
The devil take my conscience
and burn it all with you

Too many ghosts
are flying about this room
One of them keeps promising
she'll see my spirit soon

Another wishes me well
raising a pic on high
Another casts the evil look
she'd give on the sly

C

I cleaned up my life
tucked my skeletons away
Never really knowing
they'd lie in wait one day

Vindictive in their vigils
they'd wait a summer spell
to avenge my need to set things right
And chase me down to hell

Too many ghosts
Are crying out to me
to pull the knives out of their backs
And put forth transparency

But my side needs protection
My pride is in the clear
You're all dead and out of the way
And I have nothing to fear

C

How Badly Do You Need A Lover?

How badly do you need a lover, babe
Something happen in your life?
The college funds run out
As you kiss off your wife?

Caressing a mistress in the dawn
With her hands on the ledge?
Just another sexed up siren
Who tempted you over the edge?

How badly do you need a lover, babe
That you'd bring up these senseless lines
This smoked-in bar got tired of
after a thousand times

Your desperate smile weakening
as you crack that dumb joke
friends stretching to unleash
that long marital yoke

Chorus: But it's my Saturday night
And your Sunday morn
Yet another excuse
to not look so forlorn

How badly do you need a lover, babe
Right now, I do
Right now, I do

I've been there, babe
empty vows dressed in love
Working through some dated moral
I can't rise above

Nervous fingers crumble
as I tuck my little girl in
a call from the husband working late
The guilt overdrive kicks in

Chorus

I've got my demons, babe
I've got my demons, babe
I've got my demons, babe
And the bottle shares them with you


How badly did you need this night, babe
Twisting a hotel room
Tangled tightly in the sheets
As the morning came too soon

You offered to get us treats
My heart still left to burn
Then you walked out for breakfast
Never to return

Chorus

© 2009 Helen Sventitsky-Rother; Rights Reserved via Creative Commons

Hurry Up And Dream

Hurry Up And Dream, Love
I'm trying to get to sleep
streets are filled with a reverie
so silent, so deep

Hurry up and dream, love
So you can throw me on your horse
ride across galaxies
Veer some worlds off course

C: It's meant for random patterns, dear
But I know they work
Hurry up and dream love
Hurry up and dream love
For I'm waiting
I'm waiting

Hurry up and dream,love
I've slipstream's at the hand
Clocks will all run backwards
'Til mountains meet your command

Hurry up and dream, love
For roses I have in snow
shiver, anticipating
redemption in full glow

Chorus

Insomnia's a bust, i know
my heart is starting to ache
Your body wrestles in the sheets
Your breathing makes me shake

We've long since decided
which is better or which is worse
As we make our maiden voyage
across our universe

Chorus

Hurry up and dream,love
I've stayed awake too long
Your slumber pulls me away
from finishing off this song

© 2009 Helen Sventitsky-Rother; Rights Reserved via Creative Commons

Jeanie and Her Inner Rock God (alternate lyrics included)

you wouldn't know me from a hole in a dream
But I've idolized you/been a fan since I was thirteen
I made shrine for you in my room

I followed your bio to a T
Learned all of my guitar from the TV
And piano lessons were never for nothing

In college, I majored in Music Theory
Aeolian scales left me weary
All I ever wanted to do was to sing and play

Paying off my loans with these stupid office jobs
'Cause no band wants a girl with an inner rock god
Who's worth more than a dance on a keg
(who's worth more than the juice on some guy's leg)

Chorus: So it's an honor to meet you
You saved me many times before
Can I ask you now, to save me once again
For I've got everything you've ever done
I stood from the stands as I watched you run
Can I ask you now to do the same for me?

I hope you didn't mind me seeking you out
It was just a thought on a turnabout
To get advice from you on my work

See, I've got these songs and these songs have lives
And ideas I've yet to materialize
Damn, I wish you wouldn't look at me that way

Chorus

Don't misunderstand me
you can't misunderstand me
Please don't misunderstand me
It's all I wanted to do

Don't misunderstand me
you can't misunderstand me
Please don't misunderstand me
I'm not here to have sex with you

I didn't mean to offend
I'm a fan with a dream and I don't pretend
I didn't think it would ever come to this
Please don't be upset with me
It's words from a master I wanted for free
But I guess that won't be happening now

Sorry to have let you down on the fly
Surely noone's more disappointed than I
I'll be making my way out now...

Chorus

© 2009 Helen Sventitsky-Rother; Rights Reserved via Creative Commons

John, What The Hell Were You Thinking?

When we saw you walking with a friend down Fillmore Street
And you acted as a tornado has struck you in the core
My dear, did it ever occur to you
That I've long since closed that door

John, what the hell were you thinking, son?
Do you think you' re the only one I'd ever see?
John, what the hell were you after, hon?
Don't you know that there's someone home besides me?

All these years passed since I've cried tears
Over delusions made, then gone
But some how, after all this time
You still think that I've held on

John, what the hell has come over you?
Don't you know that this train's been through for quite a while?
John, what the hell has life put you through
To find some excuse to put a cramp in my style?

Early morning, the glory's singing
The sun rings out for my man and I
I don't need any drama scenes
From the paths you and I walk by

Oh and yes, I remember that too
the friends you lied of me who gleefully trashed me through
Oh dear, whatever did you all do
when I wasn't around to kick,anymore

John, what the hell's up with you, son
Don't you have any kind of fun these days
John, what the hell is up in your mind
Are you still drowning in your evil ways?

Sometimes I seem, just hopeless in dreams
When you come around in a bad way
So the horror on your face seeing us
Simply made my day

Oh I thought of sicing my beloved on you
just as you unleashed your friends on me too
but the day dictates our hearts' content
And I was with mine

John, what the hell were you thinking, son?
Do you think you' re the only one I'd ever see?
John, what the hell were you after, hon?
Don't you know that there's someone home besides me?

© 2009 Helen Sventitsky-Rother; All rights reserved via Creative Commons

Lost Everline

Lost Everline
A neverending tide
of smoking lovers' beds
As signposts in her mind

to stored entries
of gleaming alleyways
where pasts can be shed
As clothes from a stage

She worked the Wild Horse on Saturday mights
Or so she told me
Or so she told me

Stripped to her G-string under bright lights
Or so she told me
Or so she told me

The girls in the back saw her through her worst
Or so she told me
Or so she told me

As long as she got her attention first
Or so she told me
Or so she told me

Lost Everline
Never seems to cry
Though her world spins
Into dustbowls in the sky

The childhoods in hell
The trauma's sewn deep
The lifetime finding fronts
for all the secrets she keeps

Nights in the City with a married man
Or so she told me
Or so she told me

Days on the farm with a rich cowhand
Or so she told me
Or so she told me

Saving her cash for a scheme in the can
Or so she told me
Or so she told me

Or whatever is this week's master plan
Or so she told me
Or so she told me

As she's telling me these stories
The walls of her cubicle seethed
with voices of her coworkers
concocting found conspiracies

What the hell is she doing?
What the hell is she thinking?
Everline just laughs
At this foolish wagging

She said don't trust anyone
She said don't trust anyone
But in the end
All she ever wanted was
to be known by everyone

And so, dear reader
today I introduced you to...

Lost Everline
A neverending tide
of smoking lovers' beds
As signposts in her mind

to stored entries
of glistening alleyways
where pasts can be shed

© 2009 Helen Sventitsky-Rother; rights reserved via Creative Commons

Letter to Amy

Amy
don't be like your dad
thank God, he wasn't around much then

Living in a pick up truck
Brains shattered from too much stuff
You're better than the people you came up with

Amy
don't be like your mom
Too many days far gone in a needle's eye

Living in a double-wide
too many men had seen inside
You're better than the people you came up with

I was told not to call you by your name, babe
I was told things were better off this way, babe
but when I saw what they did to you, babe
My heart shuddered in a distant dawn

Amy
You've got family around you
When you call for a helping hand

But while they love you
they may not always be there for you
You gotta cut the ties to people you came up with

Amy
You've got that baby hanging with you
the son who is everyone's joy

But your foundation's crumbling
the extended family's struggling
You gotta cut the ties to people you came up with

I was told not to call you by your name, babe
I was told things were better off this way, babe
but when I saw what they did in your name, babe
My heart shuddered in a distant dawn

You're scared of the illusion
of being alone in the world
Noone ever questions who you are

But I see the chinks
underneath the surface
You're crying for a wish from a star

Amy
The world is calling
It's time for you to give an answer

Your son would like it better too
If you (and I know you) got some ambition to
leave behind the people you came up with

I was told not to call you by your name, babe
I was told things were better off this way, babe
but when you reach out to me again, babe
My heart will swell in a distant dawn

© Helen Sventitsky-Rother; Rights reserved via Creative Commons

Jodie

Jodie

I swear it's my last time

I'll take what's in my prime

And give to you what's mine

Jodie

I won't do that shit tonight

You won't have to start a fight

Over doing whatever is right

I've always had the excuse

Of a long hard road

Sleeping in some Greyhounds

Along the Mother Lode

And so here we are

Going for the hard sell

Me fighting off the sick

You past wishing me well

Jodie

I love it when you fly

Into the stars as I

repay debts to my muse

Jodie

I know you're so concerned

But girl haven't you learned

That we all die alone

It's all I can do

To fight off that urge

The drunken voices tell me

As I run up in the church

When I do my finally lay down

With the bastards of the night

I won't see you pry my cold dead fingers

From the morning light

Jodie

I won't do that shit tonight

You won't have to start a fight

Over doing whatever is right

Jodie

I know you're so concerned

But girl haven't you learned

That we all die alone

© 2009 Helen Sventitsky-Rother; rights reserved via Creative Commons

Ringed by Lovers

Underneath the waxing moon,
Blessing candles with our scent,
To set them alight

our circle fuels a rising tide
of impassioned fire storms
Into the night

Remembrances of every touch
Every single taut embrace
Caught on sight

And in our chants for open hearts
We're ringed by lovers
In weathered flight

I never let love use me
just men for pleasure
Ascribing to certainty

Of my bedroom as a haven
Pay as you go, as you like
Sovereignty

My body's a church, working
for the beat of the moon
Offerings of cheap insense
some sanctity

Though someone's karma will wear me out
I'll be ringed by lovers
In altered eternity

There are no whores in here
Just some passing fancies sometimes
you have to pay for

And when you took her to your bed
her hair's ringlets bathed in sweat
were metaphors

for all the empty sex you ever had
From listless hooking up
to cold wooden floors

But this time, there are magnets in her skin
Trading in your sense of self
Without any Fear

And her eyes betray a difference here
That you are now ringed by lovers
from another atmosphere

C2008 Helen M. Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music. Rights Reserved per Creative Commons License.

Taking Back Kosovo

I'm a beacon in your canyon
within forests of isolation
In towns where bombs are ready to blow
We are taking back Kosovo

You just can't help but remember me
The little digs throughout our history
But though you just can't seem to let it go
We're taking back Kosovo

Heads kicked in the sand
down the mountains of the damned
You could call it a tacit invasion

While the local mothers cried
Every time two worlds collide
In mixed blood of persuasion

Give it up, your time is done
We've been here since day one
600 years went by so slow
Now we're taking back Kosovo

It always been the same
Everyone else has been to blame
For all the wars you never won

We all took in stride
All these gates of ethnic pride
Rusting in decayed desolation

Your greater Serbia is no more
You even showed your last tyrant the door
And now you've got vermin with nowhere to go
Except to take back Kosovo

C2008 Helen M. Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music.  Rights Reserved per Creative Commons License

Sheila and Mayron

Sheila and Mayron
Were partners at the start of the revolution
Third year at university
Burning bras, declaring liberty

eyes met at a Berkeley protest
Tear gas stains on their Corduroy vests
Stolen kisses as students raged on
Plotting marches against Vietnam

After school they chucked the job market
Spent a year on an Asian junket
Then Sheila's true colors washed and ran
In that final layover in Amsterdam

I was all of 7 in '81
of course I missed all the fun
My mom would shake when I would ask
of that hung picture from her past

Dad thought she was just a friend
Though mom vowed she wouldn't see her again
The last night Sheila made her cry
When she copped to sleeping with a guy

I still have that photo
It's dog-eared and turning yellow
Mayron's at that youth hostel in the sky
I thought I'd give Sheila another try

It took some work but I found her address
Some abandoned well way out west
I admit she was surprised that I came up on the sly
When I told her Mayron said goodbye

She asked how I knew of their prime
Out came that photo of happier times
I caught her up and she had a laugh
at the two of them, for a while, going the same path

She looked at the clock, her partner's coming home
She's a jealous one, she said, so I best be moving on
It seems i'm always attracted to that type
She winked as she prepared her pipe

She called as I headed over the range
You're a sweet girl dear, don't ever change

You're a sweet girl dear, don't ever change
You're a sweet girl dear, don't ever change

C2008 Helen M. Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music.  Rights Reserved per Creative Commons license

Withdrawal Symptoms

I'm running out of the drugs tonight
I can't tell my left from my right
Again a habit's teasing me
With a yearning in my sight

As the last darkness falls
I find I have noone to call
I know I've run out of favors
When my best friends won't pick up at all

So I'm out on the street
Another night of trick or treat
The door manners aren't kind
The candy isn't as sweet

So I look for cash where I can
Stealing trash out of some bins
But the night's getting older
Hiding out from the man

It's four in the morning
The shakes arrive without warning
Heaving in the alleyway
Only the rats mourn my passing

Then the sun comes up
Another highless dream to pass up
Even my bed is no protection 
From backing out of living it up

C2008 Helen M. Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music.  Rights Reserved per Creative Commons Licence

Alzheimers

He seemed just a little displaced
In the checkout room
There will be no more gardening
Anytime soon

wheelchair frayed from
years of bump and stall
Racing into hectic nurses
In the hall

As we placed dad in the car
He asked for a scent
He looked at my mom
And demanded where she went

I've been here, she said
Always by your side
Not a moment wasted
In ancient pride

But I'm not the woman
Who's company you'd keep
I'm not the woman
You cried for in your sleep
I'm not the woman who's
Smell you recall to this day
I'm the one you don't remember
from your wedding day

It was not the first time
We'd seen her break down
But dad sat, his eyes glazed
He made not a sound

He touched all our faces
And tried to mouth our names
The uncle in the driver's seat
Was the one where memories came

Party To An Escape

Quick
Grab your things
Our ride's here
Our plane goes out tonight

Yes,
I hear her crying
But we're leaving
Your sister here

They'll put a cloth
Upon her head
bind her feet
make her say her prayers

then she'll bow
in the city
they command in the
kingdom of their way

No, I can't
stop him now
your father's ways
can't be hidden

For they roll
as violent oceans
And there's a reason
why I'm not here
anymore

I'm a vessel
for your needs
tell me anything
Without fear

And I will
grant your wishes
for I taught you
how to lead

The brothers
and wives are sleeping
unlock the door
down the hall we go

The driver
has revved his engine
there's no face
in the window

I'd have thought
She would have waved
or given a smile
to bless this day

But there's no love
behind the curtains
as we escape
into the night

C2008 Helen M. Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music.  Rights Reserved via Creative Commons license

Incident at Motel 6

In a room at the of the road
a day spent in each other's skin
The spouses back home are taking bets
On which one of us would win

But do they even suspect us here
Or do they even care
She just needs an excuse to leave, you said
Pouring your drink with flair

I myself don't get what I want
My husband safe and bored
When he's not out with congregations
Giving himself to the Lord

You pass that shot glass over
Your tongue plays a touch and go game
As the red afternoon sun sets
the window curtains aflame

I open my eyes a few hours later
The room had turned dark brown
Streetlights shining through the shades
Your body not making a sound

My family will look for me, I whispered
But my shaking did not disturb you
So I threw on my clothes and wrote a note
And as I hit the door you said  I heard you

I turned to you to explain
But stood rooted as a tree
For you sat upright in the bed
Pointing a gun at me

I know what you came for, you said
the barrel reflecting your glint
I am not some bored wife's toy
That you can dust off like some lint

What have we been doing, then, you said
Sneaking into each other's beds
Lest we think we let our lusts
Get into each other's heads

The door handle starts to rattle
I hear the trigger go off
I see your wife bleed in my husband's arms
All bets are off

C2008 Helen M. Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music.  Rights Reserved per Creative Commons license

Requiem for my Singlehood

When I was a young girl
I was a sorry state with men
They'd butter me up with sweet lies
And I'd do the same to them

Or they'd commence to battle
their swords drawn and such
My need for oneupsmanship
Didn't please them all too much

Chorus: But after I got married
I got all the love I could stand
Got bored of the victory lap
With a chalice in my hand
Sometimes I forget to wonder
If my life exists at all
Staring at the old hangouts
From above my castle wall

I had my collection
Of subtle, bitter friends
All they were ever there for
Were means to some ends

So of course they'd point and laugh
As I drink my way home
in a burnt summer of house parties
Never far to roam

Chorus

Bridge: The girls I hung out with
couldn't handle a sisterhood
A man's peripheral vision
marked where their ground had stood
While I sulked in defiance of
temptations in the night
forever standing by the bar
as dancers swirled in the light

Now I'm in an office chair
Dreaming of that thirst
Of having to say I'm sorry
Rather than ask permission first

Sure the first one to pluck me off
Was the one who took me home
What's the point of independence
If you can't handle being alone

Chorus x2

C2008 Helen M. Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music.  Rights Reserved per Creative  Commons license

You and Me and the Goddamn City

I am smoke
You are stone
I recall your heart beating
your skin warm

The element brownstone
The screaming crosswalk
The racing blood on
The gathering sidewalk

It's you and me
And the goddamn city

I'm floating numb
Above the cubicles
Heads sucked into
Document crucibles

lunch crowds turn
Around the warning signs
of shallow clicking sounds
in tumbling café lines

It's you and me
And the goddamn city

You were dressed well
The last time we met
Talked of melting into
Some digital jet set

Shame on me, I was too busy
Staring at the wall,
As conversation blurred
Into a free fall

I'm emptying
This head of memories,
From bridges' swoon
To streetcar reveries

The highrises
Where we made our name
Burned to the ground
In some future's name

You are smoke
I am the room
And all of our friends
Are leaving too soon

The small apartment
That became our bane
The day we tossed our vows
And went batshit insane

It's you and me
And the goddamn city

c2008 Helen Marina Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music.  Rights Reserved via Creative Commons License

Talcott's Muse

I'm an armed and dangerous man
Too many lives struck under this pen
My stock and trade being words untold
as rank sunken hearts unfold

It's been a few years since my clouds brought some rain
Inspired by my Benita again
Old leveled curses lay faint in high praise
My odes rise up in the early morning haze

Chorus: By all rights I'm too old for this crap
But my rogue's heart won't break free of this trap
I know it's just a sign of our history
in our lives to break these heavy codes
'tween you and me

We became lovers at a pharm company
a little overwhelmed of our chemistry,
She was married with children, I had but my life
Where I missed my girls but not my ex-wives

The spell in her eyes was all to be said
everything touched turned into a bed
from elevator stops to a patio floor
to beneath the cliffs on a public shore

Chorus

On the 38 to Seal Point
We'd point out with glee
at the dirty little secrets
busting out of the graffiti

I'd read to her my sonnets
From my bog in the avenues
Her arms became my last hope
With nothing left to lose

One day in the grass, I found her in tears
The family discussed our love in arrears
Meshed in hard codes in a cubicle space
And in all those numbers, I'd still see her face

I left that firm When my contract expired
Nothing was left to keep me inspired
She returned home, I could've care less
Now I don't even have her email address

But we could still meet, Benita
my hands would shower you
With so much Shameless desire
Unleashed in stars through you

morning light bounced off your body
as you left the bed
Once again there's another poem
swirling in my head

Chorus

(in memory of William Talcott, 1936 - 2006)

Damage Control

I couldn't go back now
It was my one shot
To get to you somehow

My words had decided that
You'd never hear from me
Despite rumors of my unintended
Invasion of your privacy

I meant you no harm
But no, you couldn't let it go for free
It was a matter of time
Before you sic'ed your dogs on me

Humiliation turns to hatred
for all concerned
Just a few years later
There's a lesson to be learned

For I've long stopped caring
That you ever misunderstood
For my delivery was bad
though my intentions were good

I still give you wide bearth
When I pass you on the street
I feign lack of knowledge 
Just to be discreet

And if you don't remember me
That'd be better still
Lest you hold my memories
Against my will

for I hold you in contempt
Of evaporating my trust
And hope your soul gets squashed
From your lies about my lust

gods will divorce your luck
With a trick or two
And it will be my turn to smirk
You could've had me too

For I've long stopped caring
That you ever misunderstood
For, yes, the delivery was bad
but my intentions were good

C 2006, 2007 Jane of All Trades Music.  All Rights Reserved

Diamonds In Your Spring

You don't need to feel alone
We've all gone through the same old thing
My shoulder's for you to cry on
to throw some diamonds in your spring

Your little clock keeps ticking
on issues with a bitter ring
I'm here to tear some anger down
And throw some diamonds in your spring

I'm not afraid of your misery
Your grudges means nothing to me
It's the joy that I'm after
The thrill in your reverie

It's a cold night to walk out
With so much fear mongering
Take my hand, we've got some stones
We'll throw diamonds in your spring
Don't be afraid, we've got some stones
We'll throw diamonds in your spring

C2007 Jane of All Trades Music, All Rights Reserved

Dead To Me

A Work In Progress...

A man who followed me around town
One time wanted to watch me drown
In some woes I was sinking in at the time

He'd sit and laugh and call me unfit
The uncontrollable, whacked misfit
Who'd never get the chance to shine

I once made a blunder of calling his bluff
Mistook a tossed off kiss for love
showed how I would respond in kind

It was pretty pathetic, I know now
How some ego pandering had somehow
Turned a one-off walk sinister and blind

So it's 12 noon and it's my lunchbreak
A street vendor throwing off some heartache
When I spot from the corner of my eye

Some effort to appear in my glance
an impression of more than circumstance
Twisted from some long presupposed sigh

Was I supposed to remember him?
He's sure aged since god knows when
He had a laugh off of my misery

but I've long tossed off the chip shoulder blues
I'm walking in comfortable shoes
That he appears to not bear to see

In a coffee bar, I'm feeling advantageous
Got my phoenix on the rise and the note on my status
Of his dumbfounded stare from across the way

The window seat shows crystal clear
That I have long since moved on, my dear
With nothing I'm doing involving your day to day

And if you are still stuck in the past
As an oldies station on perpetual blast
I'll throw out this tidbit for free

As long as you see me as a probable cause
Of the bogeyman that I never was
Honey, you will always be dead to me

And as a friend gave him a shoutout
It was my chance to turn about
To leave a tip and head back to my destiny

C2007 Helen Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music. All Rights Reserved.

Stain on My Shirt

We touched down in Beirut-town
Watching the Buildings bleed
Off to the camps we went
To tend to those in need

We were seen coming
Told we weren't wanted there
Hate for our kind was brewing
So we had best beware

We hold no flag high, I said
For we come in peace
No stain on our shirts
From that warring grease

Doesn’t matter, he said, for too much
Trouble comes from your home
Best clean out your house first
Leave the rest of us alone

On my way back I was switching planes
To Cali by JFK
Some men came to me as my bags were checked
And asked me to come this way

They searched me and searched me and searched again
As my eyes stared at the floor
Finally I asked why all the abuse
They said, “Well what’d you wear that for?”

It was the stain on my shirt they objected to
Something I wore unplanned
A phrase promoting rights and peace in
A language they didn’t understand

No, I wouldn’t take it off
For I’ve supposed rights
They tried hard to cover it up
With threats of jail and vice

But I came here to speak my mind
To take what others disregard
Where I came from I would have been shot
For trying too hard

So now I’m here and shat on again
An airport incident
But I’ve got the world on my side now
And I won’t be silent

But I came here to speak my mind
To take what others disregard
But I’ve got the world on my side now
And I won’t be silent

I won’t be silent
I’ll never be silent
Don’t ever be silent

© 2006 Helen M. Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music. Rights reserved as per CC Copyright