The Bar's Too High

jones is on a bender
jones is on the run
she knows it will end her
acts like it’s just some fun
she knows a lot of secrets says everybody's got a few
says life’s too short for regrets acts like it isn’t true

everyone she knows says it’s getting pretty old 
growing tired of helping her out
and if she could she probably would have done something by now

she doesn’t know how
she doesn’t know why

the bar’s too high
the bar’s too high

sometimes she gets angry
sometimes she’s a ghost
of all the ways she could be
it’s the one that hurts the most
she promises she tries she cries crocodile tears
they still make her eyes red she can’t get up out of her bed
she can’t get out of her head

everyday’s a fade to black she can’t explain
growing tired of talking it out
she can’t refrain, restrain herself or anything

it’s bringing her down
while up in the sky
 
the bar’s too high
the bar’s too high

The Bar's Too High

Prompt was a relationship between characters in a book. I chose the narrator his alter-ego and his son from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

The Whole Damn Thing

It was just murder getting through the desert
A hundred and twenty in riding leathers
Following a ghost trail, something stitched together
From fragments and old mail
Near the end of a tether

He was a teacher, a motorcycle preacher
Not really a loner but a lonely creature

Up against the whole damn thing without one doubt
He was the golden boy
Gonna figure the damn thing out
Gonna figure the damn thing out

I love a good read, feels like a good deed
Something I can do, gets me what I need 
Something that opens, something that beckons
Something that changes
My direction

We all have demons we all have distortions
Some things you just can’t keep in proportion

Up against the whole damn thing without one doubt
We all want to be the one
Gonna figure the damn thing out
Gonna figure the damn thing out

This might be a goose chase
or it might be a death race 	
But I’m gonna follow him down 
I’m gonna follow him down
down along the byways
down through these old days
Cause I have to know
Which one has to go

Look at you my love riding behind me
Everything you are just serves to remind me
If you’ve got a sickness, I’ve got a weakness
And I’ve gotta find it before it finds me

Up against the whole damn thing without one doubt
I want to be on your side
Gonna figure the damn thing out
Gonna figure the damn thing out

The Whole Damn Thing

it isn’t so hard after everything I’ve learned all i have to do is smile and they’ll let me be i can sit still for hours at a time write my simple little lines nothing changes nothing changes this one simple fact when so many things are hard to understand so many things are somewhere in between this one’s true as true can be once there was a you and me light streaming in the windows of our room and it’s just another day for remembering something you said some little thing you did when the days would come and go as if nothing nothing changes this one simple fact where so many lines are blurred this one is bright as day when so much we think we know turns out some other way here there’s nothing more to see nothing hidden up its sleeve once there was a you and me once there was a you and me

One Simple Fact (full demo)

Found In Translation

Written in the early days of the Trump debacle. A hopeful dance.

conflict of interest

Nobody Loves You (get over yourself)

Gut Response

Song Group prompt was to write from the perspective of a character in a Dylan song. I ended writing from what seem to be a number of character perspectives in Tangled Up in Blue. These verses mirror those of the original song. Why? It just happened that way.

Last Time I Saw You (with bass)

the prophecy was unfulfilled
the road was only halfway built
laid down with the best of good intentions
on smoke and dreams, the cut and fill
was dug with spoons and spinning drills
making molehills from mountains

the game show host is working hard
to close the deal on his credit card
while roller skaters roll for his attention
the plastic girl from the shampoo ad 
lights another cigarette
and checks her social media
her headlines and videos
making molehills from mountains

how does it ring?
is this the song
you want to sing?
a world on fire 
or a flame in your heart?
or your hat in your hand
watching some band
from the back of the hall
as they tear it up?

the one I was supposed to be
talks through his new teeth at me
about his new reality survival show 
with the girl from the shampoo ad
who winks and smiles and treats him bad
she’s leaning on the buzzer now
buying the vowels out
sending the ratings up
bringing the houses down
selling all the cigarettes
eating everything she gets
checking her messages
on her social media
all her friends are notified
but nobody notices
cause everything is filled
and everyone is still
making molehills from mountains

Molehills From Mountains

i heard you say it
i heard you say it like you mean it
say it like you mean it, won't you
tell me what it means

talking 'bout how
'bout how there's something you believe in
something you believe in, don't you
think i oughta know

well i ought to but i don't
and i want to but i won't
if i only knew how to get through to you

wouldn't that be magic?

oh i've been thinking
i've been thinking all about you
thinking all about you
but i don't know what to say

it's like every time you come around
we sound like marching bands in canyons
like enemies
can't we find a way to be less angry

well i ought to but i don't
and i want to but i won't
if you only could believe in what's inside of me

wouldn't that be magic?

Anand Nayak

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