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davidbermanbot.bsky.social
I post David Cloud Berman lyrics & poetry every few hours (Silver Jews, Purple Mountains, Actual Air)
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Nights that won't happen Never ever again Nights that won’t happen Never reaching the end

At the back of the bar, there's a couch Where the lonely people go and lie

Drawn up all my findings And I warn you they are candid

I guess over time we became ducks I never seemed to see you much Then the world turned, time got away We fell out of touch I've been working at the airport bar It's like Christmas in a submarine Wings and brandy on a winter's night I guess you wouldn't call it a scene

The meaning of the world lies outside the world

Strange victory Strange victory Strange victory Strange defeat

Well, I don't like talkin’ to myself But someone's gotta say it, hell I mean, things have not been going well This time I think I finally fucked myself

It's sunny and 75 It feels so good to be alive Come on, baby, don't stay inside Everybody's coming out tonight

They don't walk They don't talk in Malibu

Cause I'm a man who has a wife who has a mother Who married one but she loved another You're a tower without the bells You're a negative wishing well

Where's the paper bag that holds the liquor? Just in case I feel the need to puke If we'd known what it'd take to get here Would we have chosen to?

I could see through the sleeve on her blouse The plans of her architect lover A tattoo of a boarded-up house And ink door that belonged to another

All the time I dream of Michele And the towers in her mind Some women lie down with killers Oh, my baby's not that kind She is a real good girl Yeah, she's a real good girl And she stops the world so I can't see That she's a good, good girl A good, good girl to me

O come let us adore them California overboard When the sun sets on the ghetto All the broken stuff gets cold Smith and Jones forever! Smith and Jones forever! Smith and Jones forever, together forever and ever

Gold and Green Red and Blue Are the lights on the signs that line Charlotte avenue From the corner window, I watch the falling white flakes God must be carving the clouds into animal shapes Animal shapes, animal shapes God must be carving the clouds into animal shapes

I want to wander through the night As a figure in the distance even to my own eye

The things that you do will always make your mama cry

You got storyline fever, storyline flu You're filtering how everything looks to you Don’t you reckon it’s affecting your attitude? Storyline fever got its hooks in you Storyline fever got its hooks in you

On the last day of your life, don't forget to die

I dyed my hair in a motel void Met the coroner at Dreamgate Frontier

Drawn up all my findings And I warn you they are candid

I met failure in Australia I fell ill in Illinois

Now I've put an ocean Between myself and Goshen To get away from the Farmer's Hotel Things so unclean Are better left unseen Keep away from the Farmer's Hotel

There must be a pool out behind the church 'Cause he looked so cool in the back of a hearse After his debutante trial All the citizens began to dress in his style Oh, yeah It's a beautiful, beautiful world

Darkness and cold, darkness and cold

How do you like my little boat? This is the way the pioneers took to other settlements We'll be there in ten minutes You can see the lanterns from here When we get there, we'll go upstairs and make free long-distance phone-calls

All my happiness is gone It's all gone somewhere beyond

50 gates of understanding, 49 are closed

Have no doubt about it, hon, the dead will do alright

If it gets really really bad, if it ever gets really really bad... Let's not kid ourselves It gets really really bad

Four dogs in the distance Each stands for a silence, yeah Bluebirds lodged in an evergreen altar I'm gonna shine out in the wild kindness I'm gonna shine out in the wild kindness I'm gonna shine out in the wild kindness And hold the world to its word

How long can a world go on under such a subtle god? How long can a world go on with no new word from God? See the plod of the flawed individual looking for a nod from God Trodding the sod of the visible with no new word from God

"It's been evening all day long It's been evening all day long And how can something so old Be so wrong?"

I smile and I wave and I hide all my pain But the sign on my bumper gives me away Honk if you're lonely tonight

The jukebox is playing a sad melody For heartbroken lovers just like you and me

Windex tears flow down the robot's face He'd never felt a mother's embrace

One has lived life carelessly If he or she has failed to see That the truth is not alive or dead The truth is struggling to be said So how do we get out of this? Family shadows all of this Through what is not but could be if With all associated risk

And when I couldn't count my friends on a single thumb I loved her to the maximum

The room is dark and heavy with what I want to say I see murals in the radio static and on your blue blue jeans What would you say if I asked you to run away? It's been done so many times, I hardly know what it means

Ghosts are just old houses dreaming people in the night Have no doubt about it, hon, the dead will do alright Go contemplate the evidence and I guarantee you'll find The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind

We've been raised on replicas Of fake and winding roads

The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind When the here and the hereafter momentarily align See the need to speed into the lead suddenly decline The dead know what they’re doing when they leave this world behind

Hey man would you mind if I ruined your life tonight Would you mind if I ruined your life tonight I know you're not supposed to say bad things about the mother of your children But that bitch, that hag makes me feel like killing

The stars don’t shine upon us We’re in the way of their light

Watching the makeup girls make out with the mannequins "Hey boys, supper's on me, our record just went aluminum" Poor as a mouse every morning Rich as a cat every night Some kind of strange magic happens When the city turns on her lights

I'm still here below the chandelier Where they always used to read us our rights

Her sweater had faces all over it, famous faces knitted all over it The porch swing ticked off Central Daylight time "How many hours do you think it'll take me to smoke this cigarette?" she said with a smile

On holidays, in lonely haunts At closing time, in restaurants I can't keep on pretending not to see Yeah, I'm starting to suspect Though I hope I'm incorrect That maybe I'm the only one for me

This old yankee warlock Brushed back a gray forelock And he motioned me to sign in the book With no bonhomie He proffered the key Never once did he give me a look

Stoke the fire and sing his lines