Ferron's "Cactus" has already been detailed here so it's time to branch out with a few other faves from her musical tree. she is such a poetess.
Girl On A Road
My momma was a waitress, my daddy a truckdriver. The
thing that kept their power from them slowed me down
awhile. I remember the morning that was the closing of
my youth, when I said goodbye to no one and in that way
faced my truth...and a walk along the river... and a
rain a'coming down...and a girl on a road.
There's a rhythm to a highway to match the rhythm of
your fears. My shopping bag possessions scattered with
my splattered tears. A string of nights in truck stops
and in darkness and in lies and a man they all called
Tigerboy...he just had to show me why. He just had to
give me something I'd forever understand...as a girl on
a road.
Rain upon the water makes footprints sunk in sand.
Anger upon angry hurt, take me by the hand. Take me by
the heartstrings and pull me deep inside and say I'm
one with your forgiveness and separate from my pride.
I don't know what it's like for you but here's what
it's like for me... I wanted to turn beautiful and
serve Eternity and never follow money or love with
greasy hands, or move the earth and waters just to make
it fit my plans. My eyes would be the harbor, my words
the perfect place for a girl on a road.
I met you in the Summer, I left you in the Fall. In
between we did some living...I like to think that's
all...but now I see words can be like weapons no matter
that they're small, and I used three tiny words on you
and then beat it down the hall. Does this road go on
forever? Does this terror know no end...for a girl on a
road? Would you like to sing it with me?
Rain upon the water makes footprints sunk in sand.
Anger upon angry hurt, take me by the hand. Take me by
the heartstrings and pull me deep inside and say I'm
one with your forgiveness and separate from my pride.
You cannot measure what it takes to mend a withered
heart. They'll tell you at the onset everybody does
their part. I did my best to follow the calling of my
soul. But, it's like that first guitar I played...at
the center is a hole, at the center is a...longing...
that I cannot understand as a girl on a road.
But if music be a boulder, let me carry it a long
while. Let it turn into a feather, let it brush against
my smile. Let the life be somewhat settled with the
life that song has made. Let there be nothing I am
longing for in some plan I may have made, in some story
quickly written during a long forgotten time as a girl
on a road.
Rain upon the water makes footprints sunk in sand.
Anger upon angry hurt, take me by the hand. Take me by
the heartstrings and pull me deep inside and say I'm
one with your forgiveness and separate from my pride.
+++++
Snowin' In Brooklyn
I thank you your letters though they come to me slowly
I hear the city's in a panic with its first foot of snow
I want to answer you quickly having read you again
'Cause it sounds like you're dancing
with time's favorite friend
And it's everyone's secret and muttered refrain
That for all of our trouble we be lonely again
It's old human nature,
It's cold or it's hot
But if it's snowin' in Brooklyn
You say it's snowin' in Brooklyn
Well if it's snowin' in Brooklyn
I'd say snow's what we've got.
It won't pay you to think that your move caused the break
Sweet love has its chemistry
sometimes it don't take
But you sound lke you whip yourself
you sound like you hurt
How long do you plan to sweat it in that mouldy hairshirt?
If you're thinking of coming back
then come back you will
If you're afraid of them talking, friend
They're all talking still
It's old human nature,
It's cold or it's hot
But if it's snowin' in Brooklyn
You say it's snowin' in Brooklyn
Well if it's snowin' in Brooklyn
I'd say snow's what we got.
It'll be cold as the ocean if you don't take the train
But I hear if you know where you're going
You can beat half of the pain
So don't mind but I called your sister
and she'd glad take you in
You're thirty years old, admit pride doesn't win
Life moves so mysterious with its cute little spins
And it's everyone's koan and door to get in
It's old human nature,
It's cold or it's hot
I think of you often, I like you a lot
But if it's snowin' in Brooklyn
I'd say snow's what we've got.
And it's everyone's secret and muttered refrain
That for all of our trouble
For all of our trouble
For all of our trouble
We be lonely again.
+++++
Ain't Life A Brook
I watch you reading a book
I get to thinking our love's a polished stone
You give me a long drawn look
I know pretty soon you're going to leave our home
And of course I mind,
especially when I'm thinking from my heart
But life don't clickety clack down a straight line track
It comes together and it comes apart.
You say you hope I'm not the kind
To make you feel obliged
To go ticking through your time
With a pained look in your eyes
You give me the furniture, we'll divide the photographs
Go out to dinner one more time
Have ourselves a bottle of wine
And a couple of laughs
And when first you left
I stayed so sad I wouldn't sleep
I know that love's a gift, I thought yours was mine
And something that I could keep
Now I realize that time is not the only compromise
But a bird in the hand could be an all night stand
Between a blazing fire and a pocket of skies
So I hope I'm not the kind
To make you feel obliged
To go ticking through your time
With a pained look in your eyes
I covered the furniture, I framed the photographs
Went out to dinner one more time
Had myself a bottle of wine and a couple of laughs
And just the other day
I got your letter in the mail
I'm happy for you, its been so long
You've been wanting a cabin and a backwoods trail
And I think that's great...me...
I seem to find myself in school
It's all Ok, I just want to say
I'm so relieved we didn't do it cruel
But ain't life a brook
Just when I get to feeling like a polished stone
I give me along drawn look
It's kind of a drag to find yourself alone
And sometimes I mind
Especially when I'm waiting on your heart
But life don't clickety clack down a straight line track
It comes together and it comes apart.
Cause I know you're not the kind
To make me feel obliged
To go ticking through my time with a pained look
In my eyes
I sold the furniture, I put away the photographs
Went out to dinner one more time
Skipped the bottle of wine
Had a couple of laughs
And wasn't it fine....
+++++
Shadows On A Dime
This window makes a perfect frame
For New England leaves like painted rain
They hold me as I hold this train
All shadows on a dime.
You move forward fast by holding back
You gauge your steps and you don't look slack
Me I'm looking backward down the track
To see us dreamers in our prime.
I poured my soul in Santa Cruz
I ached all night,
Next day I lost my shoes
It's so optional what you may or may not lose
in this pattern we call time.
Fifteen years ago I worked the line
With a thousand more all doing time
While a foreman smiled complicit crime
We were strangers to the plan.
An old old woman ran the gears
She couldn't move
They said she'd been there forty years
...I think that's rude...
'Cause forty years is forty years
And I was only fifteen then.
The work waged war upon our backs
But we gauged our steps and we didn't look slack
One day the old woman didn't come back
I couldn't work so well and they let me go.
But I don't forget about the factory
I don't expect this ride to always be
Can I give you what you want to see?
Can we do it one more time?
Ten years have worn this guitar down
Its ivory whites are now mustard brown
Its face bears cracks from every town
Still it resonates with age.
Where would I be without its ring?
Who would I be if I didn't sing?
For half a chance you spare nothing --
A tethered bird to a tethered cage.
I sing to you to feed the dream
I call to you 'though it's a muted scream
We're one on one projected beams
Translucent future be our sage.
Five years have blazed since she warmed my side
She is my gift I've loved and cried
With her level look she is my guide
A spirit on the wing
Our love has jostled like this train
Or like the moon to wax and wane
But to know somebody worth the strain --
Me I have one gift to bring
I cried for here then I let her down
She let me go and then we came around
I felt us new and I felt the ground
And I felt myself believing.
And now a tired conductor passes by
He takes my ticket with a sigh
I don't think he meant to catch my eye
But he doesn't turn away.
He says "I have a daughter as old as you
And there's really nothing anyone else can do
Do you play guitar...well good for you
Me I play the violin"
I imagine him with his hair jet black
Does he hide his fiddle in the back?
He gauged his words as the train went slack:
The New York train stops here
But I don't forget the factory
I don't expect this ride to always be
Can I give them what they want to see
Let me do it twice --
The second time for me.
'Cause these windows make a perfect frame
For New York buildings like upright trains
They hold me as I hold the rain
Fleeting shadows on a dime.
+++++
Shady Gate
When I was young the mom next door would
have tea at our house and she said her heart was
broke and she told me that life was based on faith in
the Evermore but me I was always trying to find a way
to get a dime and go outside and play. It was pretty
weird my childhood years, especially with the
transference of those dreaded adult fears that I
remember a song the moms would sing and we'd
sing along...
"If you go through that Shady Gate
Have soneone near who is for you
Someone who will not mind to wait
As you go slow through shady gate."
He left my mom when I was ten. She said she
didn't give a damn...that they'd never amount to
anything and they woke me up one night in the
middle of an awful fight and I heard him yell 'What
about my needs?' and her hiss back "Why don't you
wake up all the neighbours too but please just leave
me be, another kid would finish me" and in the
morning while I ate my cereal he left...I didn't look
so I
didn't see...and she got a better job in the new
department store and me I had to rush right home
from school and feed the kids...they didn't ask about
him much.
But I asked her once about 'Shady Gate'. It was
late one night whiel we were hanging out the laundry
and she said that Shady Gate was when sweet time
won't wait, it's like when a choice gets made like a
deck been laid and maybe the sun will shine or
maybe it won't at all but whatever is coming for you
you get to have it all. And I wanted to ask her then
exactly what he'd meant by 'needs' but we had to
rush inside the winter made her fingers split and
bleed.
And he knocked upon the door before my next
birthday and my mom looked real upset and she sent
us out to play and when we came back in it looked
like she'd been crying hard and him he tried to hug us
then and he said he loved us all. He said, "Anything
you want all you have to do is say" and my mind
raced to the brand new pair of jeans I'd seen at
school that day but you know that night when we
slept the monsters didn't come and I dreamt we sang
the song out loud only this time with a drum...
"If you go through that Shady Gate
Have soneone near who is for you
Someone who will not mind to wait
As you go slow through Shady Gate"
...I like the way you held your head and how you
muttered right out loud...the things you said...you
were so serious and I didn't believe at first you
saying there was still some place you had to go and still
something you had to know. "Well, wash your face"
my good friend tells me and "Clean your house in
troubled times"...I must admit it helps an awful lot to
go on loving what you love you see I've even trained
my mind, I'm not afraid to look behind. It's a cool
night falling with the night birds calling and I dare not
wonder where you be. But it's times like this I wish I
had a line to mother love or even just another word
for Eternity.
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