A few folks at the Dubuque gig asked me about the lyrics to this new song that I wrote. It was lovely to play it out for the first time to such a good listening room, considering it's so quiet and gentle with the harp and cello and all. I can't stop singing it and want to record it right away before we get too good at it, you know? It's nice and loose right now, new. I'm thinking of releasing this one all on it's own, making handmade packaging for it and selling it for a dollar. Just feeling like sewing some cd cases and art for arts sake and such and so on. Let me know if you want one and I'll make you one. - Katie
All the homesick birds
I'm all the unkempt youth Thinking themselves mad Teeming with hormones
I'm all the women who look in the mirror with a magazine picture taped to the glass
I was never that girl, the one with the perm and the bow in her hair
I was more like a squirrel or a rabbit in winter with my back to the sun
just a little one…
I'm all the families staring at paintings in the spiral of death
I'm all the mothers and fathers of babies who watch their first breath
I was never an uncle to you the way I should have been, and we're third cousins now
I was more like a floor that you had to keep swept
just a dirty one… a careful one…
I'm all the dogs who drink water all night and can't get to the door
I'm all the couples who sleep one on the bed and one on the floor
I was never one to listen, a story too ready to make fit with your lot
I was more like a door left ajar to a store to be robbed from the back parking lot
just an easy one…
I'm all the homesick birds who must make a new nest
I all the landlords, old ladies and lawyers who never get a rest
I was never a closed book, my mysteries written by aeroplanes in the sky
I was more like a pie left to cool in the window to tempt each passerby
Just a tired one…a lazy one…
I'm all the ghosts who lived to short of a life to learn how to haunt
I'm all the prayers you said as a kid before you learned how to talk
I was never a list maker, a planner, a dreamer, a writer of wills
I was more like a half eaten jar of some unneeded prescription pills
An unfinished one….
©Katie Roche 2008