Poor Aim: Love Songs
1. Hey Boy
Hey boy, why you didn't call me? I waited for days, I can't believe you didn't call.
A, you're gay. B, you've got a girl friend, C, you kind of thought I came on too strong, or D, I just wasn't your thing, no ring.
When we sat, uh-uhunh, outside for an hour at the party and talked I thought something good could be starting. It's not a lot that I want, just some talking, and really, you just made me feel kind of uncool.
Susan Ploetz says that maybe you are scared. Shelley, Jim Brown's brother's girlfriend, said there always is a reason, which was somehow strangely comforting. And Chris Browning says you're probably surrounded by girls, and I'm just not one of them that you're needing.
2. The Sky Opened Wide (Like The Tide)
The sky opened wide like the tide, and I wanted to know where are my friends tonight? So, I got into my stride, and I walked to the Thekla, and I walked inside, and I peered into the atmosphere. There were people, and girls, and beers, and hair, but no one that I wanted. There was just no one that I wanted to be near.
Are they at the Reef? Are they at Ben Moore's? Are they on the docks down hanging by the pier? Are they at the Ralph's? Are they at some house? Are they on Fourth Ave, going up and down and up and down and up and down? and when I find you tonight, I'll put you in my boat, and away we'll ride, away from the city lights, to the place where the water makes the heavens and the earth collide, oh my darling, I can feel you breathing, and by my side, you're mine tonight.
Oh oh oh, oh oh oh. Oh oh oh , oh oh oh.
Are they at the Ralph's? Are they at some house? Are they at the Capitol theater?
Are they at McCoys? Are they at Ben Moore's? Are they on State Street driving up and down and up and down and up and down and what I want to know is where all the people are and where they go. What I wouldn't give to know where everybody gets together, where it is that they really live. Oh my Baby, when I can't find you I go crazy. It more than sucks, it's just too much.
(This song was written with Anna Oxygen in spring of 2000, for one of the choral inteludes in the Lifesize Downtown Diarama Danceathon.)
3. Knowing The Things That I Know
Knowing the things that I know tonight is no consolation. So what, we live on a globe, and everyone I know is here right now on this sphere, alone. You are far away on some land out in the water where the sun can kiss you head to toe, the air can get you hotter than I could. I oughtn't even try, whenever I do the space gets wider in between us than before. I'm like staring out from deep across the bed.
Into our shelters we go. Shield us from the unbearably high sky. Shroud us in from what we know, bandaged up from all the bleeding love. And you don't even believe in outer space, equal to the rate at which you doubt my crying face. And since you don't believe me should I cover up and fake it, or just sit here with your disbelief and know that I can take it?
(Written in 2001, for the guitar.)
4. Let's Play Boys Chase Girls
Boys, the secret about girls is that we want you to like us. We want you to think we're cool. Girls, the secret about boys is that they want you to like them. They want you to make a warm home for them in your affections.
Let's play boys chase girls.
(Originally written for a Found Magazine compilation, which may or may not exist. The found item was a post it note on which a child had written in large cursive, "Let's play boys chase girls. No, I have plans."
5. The Love That I Crave
The love that I crave is a polar bear to gore me. Then, I'd know the force with which she adored me. The love of my dreams is the stuff of my nightmares- when I wake up in screams that's how I know that I really care.
I must await the swing of the scorpion's tail, because my impatient advances always end up so pathetic. Little pinches and pokes don't mean a thing compared to a true arrival and the shock that it brings.
Pick it up, try it, get tired of it, rewind. I'm so tired of being wasted just chasing the same old thing. I want to get hit by a big thing, come take me, change me.
(This song was originally written for a Valentines Day performance event in Olympia, WA in 1998. It was performed with a backing band composed of Mary Water (Sharp), Jenn Kliese, and Chris Browning.)
6. Hock It
You're so slidy with your tender lines, I know you take the babies by the hand. And it's all fine until you tug my time, that's how you put your fuel into demand. Chests ablaze with just the aiming of your gaze you can blink and watch the ladies take a fall. I recall the soft heat of when you left me in the street and I watched you walk on.
Hearts beat quicker when your eyes provide the liquor, it's enough to flood the bachelorette parties all the girls would throw, if they thought the groom would show- but they know that he won't. He's a punk, won't give it up. Hot looks but he can't touch.
The ----something or other--- is the chase. To catch your gaze is like a bird within the hand. It began so nice, but now I'm trapped inside, it seems your cage for me must be the plan. You mean tricks, like the wetness of your lips when you say, "just put your heart here in my hand." And though I know you might hock it, I can't keep it in my pocket. I've tried, but I can't. Oh man.
I can see, and all the fellas they agree, that a boy like you is not to be trusted. But it's just so hot, it incinerates my thoughts, and I'm not really able to make it stop. Your hot staring, though it seems it might be caring, I know that it's me that you're gonna drop. But I don't unh care, I'm as happy half aware. Keep it there, hot eyes. Your tease is the best prize.
7. Come on Petunia
"Come on Petunia", you thought in your head, "It would all be so easy if you could be led to the cave where I hide you in linens and frames, and in new combinations I've made of our names. It's a tiny hole, yeah, but you'd fit if I sliced you up wee itty bitty, I'd sliver and splice you and then you could be many, and I'd be the one who was privy to love you and show you the fun."
Every little thing she does is magic. Every thing she does just turns me on. Even though my life before was tragic, now I know my love for her goes on.
Jamie stood on his stoop, and he challenged his homies to go get some girlfriends and locate their yonis. The waters were parting and times getting heated. The boys needed friendship, the beat needed meeted. Unh unh. Her dress was a ship at sail. Unh. Her knees were the water pail. This was survival and she was the kit. You could die of thirst if the girls won't give you sips.
You're all jenny and lindsey and fine and I'm underwater, shedding my mind. And I'm pretty sure baby if you'd hold my head I could live like I've wished for and undo my dread, because, I see candygrams up in the ceiling tiles, witty postcards sent off from the sandwich isles. In these towns where vacations will lead us, I'll hold out my treasures and their wealth will feed us. But, oh, she does as she wishes, and no, she won't be your missus. You kingdom it widens and you're there alone with all that love, and the void on your throne.
Love,
Khaela
