LYRICS

my song

the first one he hummed along

the second clapped long after the crowd had gone

the third man got all of the words wrong

but you know my song

so won't you tap your foot under my table

'cause my song has been written it just needs a beat

and there are men who are willing and able

but they just don't get it like you get it

if you be my rhythm I'll be your rhyme

my lyrics pressed against your lines of time

you will be mine

you will be mine

it's just a matter of time

so won't you tap your foot under my table

'cause my song has been written it just needs a beat

and there are men who are willing and able

but they just don't get it like you get it

i'll keep singing this song until I'm sure

to hear your squeaky boots walking towards my door

knock one time, knock two times, three times four

your rat-a-tat-tat's unlike any man I've heard before

so knock some more

Weary

water won't ease this dryness and

bread won't fill up this emptiness and

sleep won't rest this weariness

lust won't come close to

meeting my love needs and

driving won't distract me from my

gypsy wandering dreams and

sleep won't rest this weariness

pillows won't soften this rough patch and

sugar won't sweeten

the sourness of his scratch and

sleep won't rest this weariness

reading won't give me the wisdom I desire

i'm seeking a source of strength lord

to rebuild my fire cause I'm suffering

oh lord I'm suffering

from a cold snap

oh warmth come back

Tip toes

i'm not going to answer the phone tonight

'cause it's never you that's calling

why is it always after dark

i get your layer against my layer kind of cravings?

i keep playing the CDs you gave me

trying to relive the night they were first given meaning

i keep crying

for a man that was never mine

and this music makes me happy sad

this music is all that I have

this music gives me hope for a start

but tonight your fingerpicking

well it's pulling apart my heart

you're the kind of thing

mama put on the top shelf

to keep out of my reach

but sometimes the craving gets so bad

with tip toes on my feet

i find myself standing on some wobbly chair

grabbing at the air

in the hope you'll be there

and I don't mind if we both

come tumbling down

i don't mind if you fall right down on me

because nothing could be as heavy as

this wanting

are you going to be another one

i have to convince of the possibilities?

are you going be another one

i have to prove just how good

you and me could be?

because I've realised

there should be no need

to twist the arm of love

that was meant for me

The Knitters Curse

I found a bag full of random things

that I acquired when I lived with you

knitting needles and dusty balls of yarn

and a printed email or two

the last photograph of us together

standing in a cornfield

I am wearing a purple scarf

you are wearing that green beanie

that I knitted for love that I knitted for you

hoping the stitches would pull us through

now you're marrying a figure skater

and a life of simplicity

she looks perky and sporty and blonde

the exact opposite of me

I am certain she could skate loop-di-loops around me in the ring

but when she's listening to Nina with you

are there goosebumps on her skin?

does she knit for love? Does she knit for you?

does she knit for love and will her stitches ever undo?

me and my unravelings

red and yellow, green and grey

these balls of wool keep getting in my way

tangled up in my desire to please

I'm casting off this curse

I'm waiting for release

now I don't knit for love, I just let love be

It's going to take a gentle man

to unwrap me

Good woman

I can sing you lullabies

softly sweetly while you're sleeping baby

I can make you feel alive

If laughter's what you're after you can count on me

'cause I'm a good good woman

you better believe me

baby in the summertime

I promise not to ask for snuggles on those hot nights

honey in the wintertime

I'll offer up a love so warm you're bound to sleep tight

cause I'm a good good woman

who knows how to treat her man right

I'm not needy, I'm not greedy

and I don't mind cooking a few meals for you

but I like my dishes hot and spicy

so baby forget the flowers and bring me a chili or two

cause I'm a good good woman

and I've got the hots for you

I'm not into diamonds and

I find the whole white wedding thing quite insane

I won't spend your hard earned cash

on fancy shoes or designer bags

miss Low Maintenance is my name

cause I'm a good good woman

who wouldn't want to be my man?

Barry

Barry had a tendency for nudity

which made for amusing company

kept me from being lonely

cheers to you Barry

now I've always liked words beginning with the letter B

like Bathurst and Bangkok and buzz

so when I met Barry his name immediately pleased me

Barry took me driving in the country

In his 1985 Toyota Camry

we had a counter tea

and I got drunk on just one Shandy

sometimes the simple things are the sweetest things

like playing cards and listening to Tom Waits

on Sunday evenings

and watching Woody Allen movies

It's just the little things

like having that extra tooth brush

standing next to my toothbrush

on the bathroom sink

uncomplicated company

Brown Shoes

he asks me if I see myself as a woman or a girl

because he said

"I'm not sure if I'm a boy or a man"

"we're at that awkward age of in between," he said

"with youth on our left and

responsibility on our right hand"

you wore a floral shirt

two hundred dollars in New York it cost you

but what I liked more than the shirt

was that you wore it with your

two dollar brown shoes

he sends me songs on CDs in the post,

that carry warmth and light to me from his city

he is so lovely

and even though our star signs are

apparently well aligned

there are matters of the heart

and matters of the mind and timing

and so tonight we'll just sing harmonies

I'd been saving up some stories that

I knew he would appreciate

but now the weeks have past it all feels

a little too late

he tells me he's doing great

oh how quickly things can change

relationships they rearrange

briefly familiar now just strange

and so tonight within this melody

I won't listen for his harmony

Love Always Leaves

she looks so neat in her office clothes

she drives herself through the traffic

home to no-one

It's been that way for so long

her mother and father left her

when she was young

and she said love always leaves me

she's thirty two years old and

she's lonely

he looks at me with his wise old eyes

he's gentle with his words of advice again and again

and despite the nine loves of his life

he never had himself a child for fear of pain

and he said love is only misery

he says there'll be no more

love for him after me

he played for me a sweet melody

and handed his guitar to me

after just one song

he held me in his arms one night

shared his soul much to my delight

  and then he was gone

and he says love is everywhere you see

and as he walked away

I longed for him

to love me

Angie

he said "Angie, you sing like a baby

Angie you sing too sweet

It's going to take a few more broken hearts

and one will be from me

I'll break your heart Angie"

he drinks his whisky

as I eat my icecream

he tells me he'll miss me

at the end of this daydream

he said "Angie you don't know about love yet

you think it's flowers and sweet as summer rain

the older you get you will realise

love will only ever bring you pain

love is always bound to leave a stain"

It's after midnight

he's driving stoned through the city streets

my head's on his shoulder

his hands are on the wheel

there are no shoes on his feet

he said "Angie you sing like a baby

Angie you sing too sweet

It's going to take a few more broken hearts

and one will be from me

I'll break your heart Angie"

If only you could see me now

with my wounded heart on this stage

I think that I'd make you proud

your little Angie's come of age

so tell me - do I still sing like a baby?

do I still sing too sweet?

because I've had my fair share of broken hearts

and realised that nothing's what it seems

I've had broken hearts and broken dreams