The Prodigal Daughter

And I’m not going back into rags or in the hole
And our bruises are coming, but we will never fold
And I was your silver lining, as the story goes
I was your silver lining, but now I’m gold

Hurray, hurray, I’m your silver lining
Hurray, hurray, but now I’m gold

And I was your silver lining, high up on my toes
While you were running through fields of hitchhikers
As the story goes

Hurray, hurray, I’m your silver lining
Hurray, hurray, but now I’m gold

Hurray, hurray, I’m your silver now
Hurray, hurray, but now I’m gold

And the grass, it was a’ticking
And the sun was on the rise
I never felt so wicked
As when I willed our love to die

And I was your silver lining, as the story goes
I was your sliver lining, but now I’m gold

Hurray, hurray, I’m your silver lining
Hurray, hurray, but now I’m gold

Hurray, hurray, I’m your silver now
Hurray, hurray, but now I’m gold

—
Rilo Kiley

It’s four in the morning, the end of December
I’m writing you now just to see if you’re better
New York is cold, but I like where I’m living
There’s music on Clinton Street all through the evening.

I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert
You’re living for nothing now, I hope you’re keeping some kind of record.

Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?

Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You’d been to the station to meet every train
And you came home without Lili Marlene

And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody’s wife.

Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well I see Jane’s awake —

She sends her regards.
And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I’m glad you stood in my way.

If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.

And Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear

—
Leonard Cohen

I am alone but adored
By a hundred thousand more than I said
When you were the last high
And I have known love like a whore
From at least ten thousand more than I swore
When you were the last

When you were the last high

You were awake
And I should’ve stayed
But wondered
I was only out for a day
Out for a day
It was Chicago for a moment and then
It was Paris and London for a few days
But I am alone but adored
By a hundred thousand more than I swore
When you were the last

When you were the last high
When you were the last high

I was the first to have spoken
And I said just about
All of the things you shouldn’t say
So maybe you loved me but now
Maybe you don’t
And maybe you’ll call me
Maybe you won’t

So I am alone but adored
By a hundred thousand more than I said
When you were the last high
And I have known love like a whore
From at least ten thousand more than I swore
When you were the last

When you were the last high
And you were the last high
—
Dandy Warhols

In the first days of the spring time
made you up and split from one thousand enemies
made a trail of, of a thousand tears
made you a prisoner inside your own secrecy

There’s a ghost in me
who wants to say “I’m sorry”
Doesn’t mean I’m sorry

At the first hour of the springtime
made you up and split from one thousand enemies

now I see you from the corner
clock strikes
and I know you will be drinking alone

There’s a ghost in me
who wants to say “I’m sorry”
Doesn’t mean I’m sorry.
—
Ladytron

4. Fletcher McGee

SHE took my strength by minutes,
She took my life by hours,
She drained me like a fevered moon
That saps the spinning world.
The days went by like shadows, 5
The minutes wheeled like stars.
She took the pity from my heart,
And made it into smiles.
She was a hunk of sculptor’s clay,
My secret thoughts were fingers: 10
They flew behind her pensive brow
And lined it deep with pain.
They set the lips, and sagged the cheeks,
And drooped the eyes with sorrow.
My soul had entered in the clay, 15
Fighting like seven devils.
It was not mine, it was not hers;
She held it, but its struggles
Modeled a face she hated,
And a face I feared to see. 20
I beat the windows, shook the bolts.
I hid me in a corner—
And then she died and haunted me,
And hunted me for life.

—
Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology

it’s in the can

“We take off into the cosmos, ready for anything, solitude, hardship, exhaustion, death. We’re Proud of ourselves, but when you think about it our enthusiasm’s a sham. We don’t want other worlds. We want mirrors.”

—
Solaris

“I could tell you what’s happening, but, uh, I don’t know if that’d really tell you what’s happening.”

—
Solaris

“Isn’t that just like a wop. Brings a knife to a gun fight”

The Untouchables