Our hearts are only twenty-two
Our souls a hundred -five
There’s a railway runs between the two
Like the freight-trains of our lives

We tug our time like ragged sleeves
And our days we wear ’em thin
We scatter them like pumpkin seeds
Or breath into the wind

You know I don’t believe in God
But I believe in you
From the roads down which we both have trod
To the nights that you pulled me through

You scream love like a battle cry
You shine love like a light
But you’ve got that look in your eye
And there won’t be no talkin’ tonight

Some questions they don’t have question marks
Some answers they leave you in the dark
Some words feel more like broken bones
Until goin’ home… don’t feel like goin’ home

If you should ever go away
If you should lock your door
I know one crestfallen musketeer
Who ain’t gonna smile no more
My heart is only twenty-two
But my soul’s a hundred five
I’ll destroy this body when I’m through
And away my spirit will fly
Right before your eyes
Ah, but don’t look to the sky

She sleeps in the corner room
The blinds are drawn
And the lines are too
I’m sleeping on the sofa bed
Eyes wide, tongue-tied,
Thinking about the times when I was…
Close to her
Two souls alone in the world

She’s got a heart like a jumbo jet
Custom built for turbulence
And a mind like a bayonet
Cool, keen and dangerous
She’s so close it hurts
Last suppers are just desserts
She’s so far from me
A staircase from here to eternity

Salesmen, cheats and swine
A man can be a sad excuse sometimes
I guess I couldn’t hear her
I guess I didn’t see her cryin’
And I guess that’s why they call the drunk blind

I woke up like an atom bomb
Bolt upright, a flash of light
And everything I loved was gone
And if I never get back home
I’ll call her up long distance on the telephone to feel…

Close to her
Hang ups, bad connections, indifferent dial tones
She’s so close to me
In the belly laughs and the photographs and the sweet old memories
I’m so close to through
What’s a poor, blue, downhearted boy like me to do
When it’s so close to three
It’s time to put the cap back on this old crutch and try to get some sleep

Your voice… it makes me sing
And your bell… it makes me ring
And your spell tenderly stings
This sickness is what they call love

Your eyes… they make me shy
And your touch… it warms my nights
And your tears can make me cry
And this sickness, that’s what they call love

Sunshine, your fine
From sunrise to supper time
But, oo-ee, sweet pea
The sun sets and the fever peaks

Your wave… it leaves me sunk
And your wine… it leaves me drunk
And your yard is full of my junk
And that sickness, that’s what they call love

And when your hair is grey
I’ll be there, the very same way
And we’ll share each other’s pain
And that sickness, that’s what we’ll call love

Well I’m weary with expectation
I’ve got a map and my old guitar
And a bleary eyed destination
From the train to the bus to the bar
And I’ll sing like the birth of a nation
But it’ll sound like a road too far
’cause I’m thinking about you on the train into Hong Kong station

It’s a neo-colonial morning
There’s a soldier asleep on the road
Like a distant early warning
Of all those long dead debts that I’ve owed
But your face shines like a beacon
Like a streetlight in a Wanchai road
Like a wave of calm on a sea of aggravation

Gotta get me some sleep
No, don’t take it like that
I don’t mean no harm
If the hour-hand don’t get you
The second-hand will
When you’re a long way from home

There’s eight thousand miles between us
But there ain’t nothing comes between you and me
Like that city that soars so stubbornly
Between the mountains and the sea
I’ve got a photo of you in my wallet
And a thousand RMB
Are you thinking about me on the train into Hong Kong station?
‘Cause I’m thinking about you on a train into Hong Kong station
I wish you were with me on the train into Hong Kong station

Oh, oh, where’d you come from?
You’re sitting in my kitchen with the radio on
A bit confused but it seems so clear
You’re waitin’ on something that’s already here

With your collar up and your eyes cast down
You never were too good at sticking around
And it looks like strength but it smells like fear
When you’re waitin’ on something that’s already here

The days seem sad and strange somehow
Like sleeping on the subway in your wedding gown
The world’s a bride in a veil of tears
When you’re waitin’ on something that’s already here

Will the days seem long?
When the waiting’s done?

Hey Joe, where did you go?
Like a sad, slow soundtrack on the radio
You show up drunk and then you disappear
‘Cause you’re waitin’ on something that’s already here
You’re waitin’on something that’s already here
Yeah you’re waitin’ on something

Black, black, my heart is black
A dark, ominous stranger with a knife at my back
A train full of werewolves on a poisonous track
Black, black, my heart is black

Down, down, my spirit goes
My little boat is capsized on a river of woe
The trees are screaming murder and the sky’s full of crows
Down, down, my spirit goes

Blind, blind, it’s dark all the time
O’r the window of my soul someone has lowered the blind
A pinhole camera takes the portrait of my crime
Blind, blind, blind blind blind

Please, please remember my name
When my lonely little rocket leaves this planet of shame
My life’s just a dissonant whistling down a long dark lane
Please, please remember my name

Black, black, my heart is black
So raise that cross and salt my wounds and tighten that rack
I got me a one-way ticket and I ain’t coming back
Black, black, black black black
Black, black, my heart is black

I’m drowning in my thirteenth drink
Stranded in this place all night
And down into my stool I’ll sink
A lighthouse without a light
So forgive me Thomas Edison
But there ain’t no ship in sight
I’m taking my medicine
So, kill the light

We love at the speed of sound
But we murder at the speed of light
And we panic when it all comes down
We blast off into the night
And the universe whispers in your ear
All the stars and the satellites
“There’s nowhere but down from here”
So, kill the lights

So believe me when I say it’s true
This big brotherly advice
Before the darkness creeps up on you
Kill the lights

I met you in July
As they showed you around the floor
I filed your name away but it rattled in my drawer
Then autumn passed away
And winter followed suit
I loved you more each day and I know you know that’s true

It’s simple when it comes
So pretty and profound
To feel so lost and found

I knock off around five
To find some happy hour
I thought I caught your eye across a Bourbon Sour
But when it wasn’t true
I weighed the compromise
She laughs a bit like you, and smiles at awkward times

So here’s mud in your eye
And do you wanna dance?
And beat all our bad days down
I’ll kiss you to a cab
And here’s mud in your eye
We’ll keel haul this dull grey town
Yeah we’ll beat all our bad days down

Oh, oh this is not a drill
Stop signs seem so sad and still
All these dreams of time to kill
But if we don’t pull the trigger soon you know we never will

So press the 14th floor
And check the coast is clear
Will you come to my door and kiss me away from here?

Suicidal saints and cigarettes
Losing battles and waging sucker bets
Ah, any other lovesick fool could plainly see
That your straitjacket love’s got a hold on me

Less like a bloom and more like a thorny stem
Our love’s like a whole damn page in the DSM
But this ball and chain’s the only thing gonna set me free
Cause your straitjacket love’s got a hold on me

You’re worse than crack cocaine and bathtub gin
Just because I lose don’t mean you win
Cause a ten-car pile-up takes a two way street
And your straitjacket love’s got a hold on me

Ah, you crack like a snare and you screech like a violin
You’re well aware of all seventeen deadly sins
Some day you’re bound to go on a killing spree
But till then this straitjacket love’s got a hold on me

Aaaaaaaaaaah… hold on
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah… hold on

You’re like the hurricane is to the breeze
You’re like the noose is to the willow trees
And you’re like a boa constrictor honey, when you squeeze me
But your straitjacket love’s got a hold on me
Yeah, your straitjacket love’s got a hold on me

Ah, here we go again
You’re down off your cross
You walk out of the rain in Lucky Street
Just like you’re Lazarus
But it ain’t no miracle
No, it ain’t to hard to see
Behind the curtain of this two bit sleight of hand
You’re tryin’; to pull on me

‘Cause you’ve become a lying, cheating, fire-breathing
Long, cool, drink of remorse
All the bruises and the stitches, zombies and the witches
Have all become a matter of course
When you ride in on the darkest horse

Where do you get off?
Why do you go on?
Wasting all my time shooting your mouth off
Just like a Tommy gun
Every other hour of every single day
Why do you take it out and wave it around
Just to put it away?

‘Cause even when we lie in the gutter
We stammer and we stutter
But some of us are looking for stars
While you lay there bleeding, bottom-feeding
Listening for the police cars
Ah, the sky is clear and it can’t help but mirror
The blackness in your white-trash heart
Such a fine night for shooting stars
It’s a fine night for stealing cars

Ah huh, you’ve been away too long
And now, you wanna come back home

Well, not on your life… over my grave
The tip of the ice, the edge of the knife,
Till the end of my days
Here we go again…

Oh Grace your face is a constant reminder
But every night it gets a little harder to find you
Till I’m just sittin’ here
Prayin’ to God that I don’t disappear
The light is cruel and most nights the darkness is kinder

When everyday gets a little harder to swallow
And everything gets a little harder to follow
I’ve been writing wrongs
Fictions for pictures on my wall
But every word seems a little bit more hollow

Oh Grace and Mary my mind falters
One of you is my wife and one’s my daughter
Some days I can’t say which
It’s like begging for change when you used to be rich
It feels like dropping diamonds in the water

But there’s a place
I’ll be there soon
I’ll cup your face like I used to do
When the world was a room that we made love in

I’m watching the stars fall
It’s like the end of something
And I give them names – the Ghost, the Son, the Father
And I used to pray but these days I just don’t bother
‘Cause it feels like dropping diamonds in the water

I’ve been around, had my ups and my downs
Took my share and paid my dues
Went to bed with a dream in my head
And woke up with the bad boy blues
But when you’re gamblin’ all of the time
Don’t matter if you win or lose
And I ain’t never been shy so I don’t know why
I’m standing talking to your shoes
I guess it’s ’cause oh, I love you so
You thrill me like a Tilt-o-Whirl
With your heart-stoppin’, jaw-droppin’ big sky love
My pretty little prairie girl

Rogue males and old lone wolves
Ain’t much for self control
They sleep with one foot in your bed
The other headin’ for the door
Feet get cold and hearts they can freeze
In the dark nights of your soul
But I don’t care who disagrees
Falling in love is totally rock n’ roll
And I say oh, I love you so
And when my flag unfurls
There’ll be a heart tattoo with a picture of you
My pretty little prairie girl

In the rain those trains and planes
They took me all around this world
But all that steel and chrome made me think about home
My fingers running through your curls
I say oh, I love you so
And there’s one thing I’m sure
I’d crawl a thousand miles just to see that smile
My pretty little prairie girl
And I say oh, I love you so
And it ain’t such a dark old world
I see the future rise in the light of your eyes
My pretty little prairie girl