One Step Closer

Or Is It Just Me? © Chris Eaton 2009

Do you know those moments when a sight or a sound
Triggers images from deep to the top of your mind
Do you know what I mean? Or is it just me?

I feel I’m in a place a far away place
In distance and in time but it seems so real,
I can reach out and touch it every sight and every sound
Do you know what I mean? Or is it just me?

It’s a long summers evening and If I stand up tall
Fresh paint on the sill, I can just peek out,
And as the sun dips down I can watch my brother play
I can smell the heat as it rises from the ground
I can reach out and touch it every sight and every sound
Do you know what I mean?

Then I’m walking with my girl as the snow falls down
I can palm each flake and place it on the ground
Do you know what I mean? Or is it just me?

And the taste of the kiss that lingers on my lips
Still shakes my ache from my toes to my hips
And the scent of her hair on the pillow on the bed
Even though she’s left for work I can nuzzle in her neck
Do you know what I mean? Or is it just me?

Blackberry Blossom/ Silver Spear (traditional)

Can you tell me what happened to the blossom
The blackberry blossom when summertime came?
Blackberry blossom the last time I saw one
Was down in the brambles where I rambled in the rain

The brambles were wild, I was torn by the briers
My lover, she wooed me as she lay there
With a flower in her hair and her cheeks so flush
It was a blackberry blossom from the blackberry bush

When I picked the berry I didn’t miss the blossom
The blackberry blossom was white as the snow
But the berry that it brings is sweeter than honey
And black as the wings of a stone black crow
The stone black crow is a devil and a demon
Known for his cackling and his screaming
Driving away the swallow and the thrush
From the blackberry blossom and the blackberry bush

I was out picking berries when that crow flew above me
Carrying my lover’s soul away
Now each spring I lay a blossom
By a cold gravestone on the stone black clay
The stone black clay is rocky and hard
With weeds grown over in the old graveyard
And the day settles down to an evening hush
Over the blackberry blossom and the blackberry bush

MOS VOS  ©chris eaton 2010

Mos vos adveho me can
Capio vestri
tremor manus manus

I cannot promise riches
nor the warranty of fame
But I’m fast to learn
and quick to bend the rules of all the games
God gave us one life to live
and just one dice to roll
Now’s the time to gamble on the chance
that we may not grow old

Can you find some strength in me,
Can I guide you through the dark
When all around is scary,
Like a night out in the park

Will you come with me,
Can I hold your trembling hand
As we tread towards the unknown

Will you live to join our band
Will you march with me,
Reach out and grasp another hand
As we tread towards the unknown
Will you live to join our band
COME WITH ME, Will you COME WITH ME

Our boys will be men one day,
there’s childhood at stake,
Cherish, watch, love and share,
don’t find time when it’s too late,

But…God gave us one life to live
and just one dice to roll
Now’s the time to gamble on the chance
that we may not grow old
Can you find some strength in me,
can I pipe you to your dream
Let’s seize this fragile vision,
even though you stamp and scream
Will you come with me,
can I hold your trembling hand
As we tread towards the unknown

Can you bear to leave your land
Will you march with me,
reach out and grasp another hand
Our day has come, the time is right,
it’s now we make a stand

This strange girl shook me from my sleep,
she said it’s all a reverie
The hope we had,
drowned in raging torrents all at sea,
The life we craved,
our fortunes lost,
our goals left unfulfilled,
Our spirit drained, the stories told
of passion tried, then killed

But as the waif drifted out of view,
It washed over me in waves
It’s her that’s false, it’s this that’s real,
cease digging all those graves

All My Life © Chris Eaton 2009

I used to think the world was small
Others were short when I felt that I was tall
The arrogance of youth can make you blind
When you’re so wrapped up in what you want
And all your cares are all for you, And what you hope to find

All my life I’ve been looking for this place
In the stillness of the waters I can see it in your face
And as I grow old like my father did before
I can rest and be assured that I’ll only love you more

To make me look outside
To watch the seas in all their moods, Sand shifting with each tide
Those darkened times are distant and obscure
Like broken patterns, scattered dreams
You came to mend with so much care, And make me want for more

Just care and nurture where we need to grow
And make strong roots to get us where we want to be

All my life I’ve been searching for a place
Even though the water’s still I could sink without a trace
And as I grow old like my father did before
I can rest and be assured that I’ll only love you more

ONE STEP CLOSER – Chris Brooker 2010 ©

There’s a sparkle in your eye that I know is not for me
It’s the way you run your finger down your cheek
It looks like you are gazing out to sea but not at me
I want to be that something that you seek

One by one step closer to you

If time is such a healer then I’ll need a hundred years
To tell myself I’m over you
When a hundred years has gone I’ll sit and watch that rising sun
To see if my heart has been released

I don’t know how to get what I want or most desire
There you are and there you go again
Awkward conversations mixed with motives that confuse me
Spin my head around and ‘round again

Don’t hold on to me. Don’t hold on to me.
Don’t hold on to me my love she said
Don’t hold on to me my love. Thank you but please no more my love
You’ll sink to the bottom of my love, You’ll sink to the bottom

MOVE ON – Chris Brooker. 2010 ©
It’s a musty kind of air that I’m breathin’ each day
You’re rusted to your bones and you’re stuck in your ways
Your pedal’s fallen off and you’re slowin’ down the highway
Slowin’ down my life and you’re wastin’ all my time
Chug-a-chug-along with your windows down
Songs playing on your radio too soft for me to hear
Swayin’ side to side as were movin’ down the highway
Somethin’s gotta give yeah somethin’s gotta give

Only let you down

You’re heavy on the steering and you’re heavy on the juice
You’ve become such a part of me it’s hard to lose you
You always look good and you sound even better
Tried to find a place for you but no one else would have ya
Time crept up quietly like the rust that’s inside of you
Nowhere left to go so I turned and walked away
Took a little piece of you and hung it ‘round my neck
Somethin’s gotta give yeah somethin’s gotta give

You turn over each day and you’ve stopped countin’ K’s
Gotta give me more ‘cause there’s no lights on your gauge
Gotta giddy up ‘cause you’re gonna make us late but
What did you expect when all you do is take
Gotta wait each day ‘till you wake and you warm
Lookin’ at my watch the time’s tickin’ on
That sorta made it easy, it kinda made sense
Hope you understand ‘cause it’s time to move on

CHOP ME DOWN – Chris Brooker 2010 ©

Would you call me up and tell me
It was all within your reach
You just hold out your hand
Do you wake up in the night
‘Cause you’ve fallen from your dream.
Would you grab me on the way, down.

Is it in the chase or for you to hold face.
Do you see yourself burn
Would you shake that humble tree
That I sit in to spite me
Or would you come and chop it down
Would you chop me

You used to talk about the nineteen seventies
When you were young
And life was how it’s supposed to be
Now your memory’s gone and all that’s left to see
Are ways to chop me down

Can you see yourself once more
Regaining what was yours
Do you hear your grave call
Would you take the time again
To remember why and when
The smile fell from your face

Would you take a word from me
‘Cause you’ve given yours for free
Would it fall on deaf ears
Would you climb that tree with me
To the highest branch and see
We took one branch at a time

Chop Me Down
And bring that hammer down

You’re like a rusty ball and chain
Or a dirty dog with mange
Like a snake that just can’t see
Or a gravel rashed knee
Like a wound that won’t heal
A slippery handed deal
Get off my back monkey man
And bring that hammer down

Mobile Love – © Chris Eaton 2010

I’ve gazed from the wings
As I’ve watched you grow
Never quite sure to jump on or let go
As you’ve conquered the world
And never looked back
How did I live without you?
From a dream in Sci-Fi plots
To be part of our daily bread
Always the need to feel you by my side
To keep you in my pocket
I want to take you out, and I get nervous if I don’t
You tell me jokes, you make me smile
Before you came along I’d talk with friends

I can’t spell things out anymore
I can’t spell it out anymore

We can change your look with a plastic dress
And taint your voice with a thousand sounds
As you conquered my soul and never looked back
I can never be without you
I tried to resist your call
But now I’m hopelessly hung up on you
The peels of bells that gave me joy
When I was young, are lost forever
I’d like to be engaged so that I’m an island
Solitary away from this exchange, off the dial
Where I can talk with friends

GR8, M8, L8, abbrevi8,
obliter8, DTF, OMG, LOL
TXT, IMHO, PITA
Does anyone understand me?
It’s evilution

FAITH – Chris Brooker © 2010

I can never look you in the eye
You see straight through me and out the other side.
And your face I’ve always noticed
Is most beautiful when you smile

Did I turn you on, did I turn you off
You’re my solace now, my sweet remorse
Push my bruise and watch me bleed
You’re strings are sharp but they sound so sweet.

Faith in you. Faith in me
You scratched the skin on my face
Like a book covered in dust, like a knife of distaste.
To see if I bleed from the scar from my past
Or to see if the next is just like the last

How do you sound when you’re all stripped bare
When do you say enough said
To clear your mind for a new slate to find
And rewrite the tunes inside your head

Faith in you. Faith in me

SECRET MENS BUSINESS © chris eaton 2009

Once a week I cross the plain
To the top of the hill and look down on the cane
Where the cars in the distance look like ants
And the highway meets the sea,
The road it winds around and down,
Then up again to a mountain town,
A case in hand, and a woman wiv a beard
To keep me company

My best friend thinks I’m going out ,
To strut my stuff and sing and shout
‘tween you and me, more or less,
It’s secret men’s business

Most o the time the sun do shine,
But when it rains them toads are mine,
It makes the trip more interesting
With the crackle and the pop,
The x-box in the corners dead,
As one girl shows with a bull that’s red
One girl brings a dusty rug,
Another’s flushed with wine

The room it sings and then it swings
My oh my oh my

It’s strange to think that my best friend
With whom my life will likely end
Will never see this part of me and all that it entails
We live our lives in separation,
Sometimes meeting at the same location
For a few snatched words, a loving glance
The odd shared cup of tea

She’ll never knows what does go on
Behind those sliding doors