slip off your shoes and let's walk home 
she danced along the country road
between the holes of lightning bolts
we’ll fill them up with rain and pepper wine
and fireworks on the toothless skyline

it’s impossible she says to me
to fold the street into origami
but the moon’s a lens projecting movies
a silver screen will bury everything
we’ll follow flowers up from the garden

they’re lining up to lose their minds
so long as they don’t know, they’ll be just fine
the photograph’s alive in her eye
we’re looking for a place to put in frame
but nothing here has ever stayed the same


Scare


closing remarks are trampled with applause
war is at my door
the word’s intent to hack up a meaning
no one there was sure
the days all dawn on accident
and a guess is as good as the world
listen up and tell yourself
the arrow in the air won’t fall on you
because you didn’t put it there
panic and reach for nerves shrouded and vague
lying across the tracks
one mind defined by plastic procedures
and there’s no going back
said you don’t recognize
your own life underneath this light
it sickens me you tell yourself
the arrow in the air won’t fall on you
because you didn’t put it there
somehow the lights have all gone from the sky
I just need one to sweep up by
silence alone will keep us up all night
all is by your side
all is by your side
passing by your side

Ghost Limbs

Panic & Reach

Roll that orange straight into hell
you polish the peel from your nails
red lips bloom when I look away
“Who’s buried in the garden,
feeding the flowers your name?”
the part a piranha throws up
give me back my skeleton
one of us will eat the sky
the other one won’t wonder why or lie
a mask dissolves the face it’s upon
to face me with fake amnesia
who listens to a drunkard’s prayer?
a ladder led you to some air
where you’ll have to live with yourself
the part a piranha throws up
give me back my skeleton
one of us will eat the sky
the other one won’t wonder why or lie
I’ll make you into nothing

The Part A Piranha Throws Up

I got a cliché to explain everything:
the ace in my sleeve and the death I had to cheat, 
so I’ll charade as anyone anywhere. 
In the city a séance spells another past, 
the act in the glass and a role to be recast, 
a face I know on anyone anywhere.
The parade disappears in her.
See her in hell, right at home
beneath a wishing well, 
the joke I don’t believe was told
cut the past from behind me.
Ain’t got a memory that don’t beg to foresee
a piano falling from a mouth of broken teeth
I pace beneath with anyone anywhere
but I’ve got better things to do
than get my heart broken again
beneath the wishing well, 
I guess that’s where I’ve always been.

Anonymous Again (AMUSER outtake)

Some unravel in the sun—
pull the thread till there’s no one
cue the decoy, cut the brakes
crying wolf before you wake
selling proof to some cheapskate
for a chance to narrate your escape 
even before it takes—

From a house with no door 
and no window
from a house with no door

Whose illusion are you now?
leave the stage before you bow
dressing up like a punch line
to paralyze a flying kite
redesign with dynamite
eulogize a burning eye
you swore once before 
lit the sky—

In a house with no door
and no window
in a house with no door

House With No Door (AMUSER outtake)

Would you follow a raindrop to hell?
there’ll be no murder of crows to dispel
she overheard through a keyhole
the only rumor the audience already knows
the days disappear like the ink that drew us all here

Unring a bell, under a spell
I’ll be a ghost in a cello
do you know why you’re scared?
can you hear me out there?
do you know what you share?
do you hear me at all?

If you listen the garden’s alive
there’ll be no proof of you and I
there’ll be new paint on the landscape
the bottle broken the ravens all have got away
no sun can be seen from inside the willow tree

Unring a bell, bury a well
I’ll be a ghost in a shell
do you know why you’re scared?
can you hear me out there?
do you love what you share?
do you hear me at all?

Unring a bell, breaking a spell
I’ll be a ghost to foretell
do you know why you’re scared?
can you hear me out there?
do you love what you share?
do you hear me at all?

Ghost In A Cello (AMUSER outtake)

well if you’re gonna rip a paper skull
too many thoughts will hit the floor 
I poured a ribbon till the jaw got full
of words tied up in bows

while I was dancing on the devil’s tail
the stars melt on the hill
and she fell down from the moon and cried
is this for real
well

said all the thunder you can find in a shell
it sure is fancy meeting you
she didn’t have to keep an eye on hell
cuz there’s nothing to do

I got my polish and mahogany coat 
I’ll swan dive in the earth
and she fell down from the moon and cried
what is this worth
well

send me off to bed with a shovel
send me off to bed with a show

To Bed With A Shovel

Where all the cemetery flowers bloom
busting the windows in a carnival saloon
to vanish behind their cheap perfume

Well if you're here to sell me some fool's gold
sawed off a shotgun and I'll pour myself a road
lit out for Reno with a ghost

Now who is this candle lit for? Pour me a dream
Now who is this rain falling for? Pour me a dream

I know where all the headless roses grow
I hold a scarecrow in the coals
now who is this candle lit for?
Little Amuser's at the door

Sat down to poker with the tarot cards
I had a royal flush that broke the joker's heart
madness is only just a start

Ask me directions and I'll turn to smoke
just follow me and you might hear my favorite joke
moonlight is anybody's ghost

Now who is this candle lit for? Pour me a dream
Now who is this rain falling for? Pour me a dream

I've seen a vandal ride the setting sun
I know a wolf who cried no one
now who is this candle lit for?
Little Amuser's at the door

Written, played and recorded by Ben Roque in San Diego, CA
Mastered by LANDR
2019 Bell Drive Press

Little Amuser

I made the bed like a soldier, poured myself another sky-blue
I told the devil on my shoulder “Don't you have something to do?”
I left a trail of sulfur matches, dared the sun to miss her cue
you'll never recognize your voice
when you're asking who put out the light

I heard the sirens and lit a cigarette for Mona Lisa
I left the key in the door of a house I’m burning to the ground
the cops are digging for the bones of an answer that can’t be found
you’ll never recognize your voice
when you’re asking who put out the light

Well it’s one for the wagon and one for the rubber room
they trace him in chalk on a Labor Day afternoon
they found no name but he’s missing his last gold tooth

I bet my time on a bullet riding down the ragged line
I split the morning down the middle, kissed the moon between the eyes
the paper told me all they knew but the ink wasn’t there to dry
you never recognize your voice
when you’re asking who put out the light

Crows will heckle from a wire, blinking in my broken taillight
The clock is melting on a fence, dripping like a leaky roof
I’m dealing out another city, aces on the avenue
You never recognize your voice
when you’re asking who put out the light

Who Put Out The Light?

From full length, AMUSER, out July 9th

With birds in your hat
a milk white moon haunted maniac
he settles his debt
throws a bag of nails at the place he left
since I learned the trick from Jekyll

I hang like a kite
at the bar Fats won in a fistfight
I saw the man Houdini in the rain
but the thunder vanished with the train
since I learned the trick from Jekyll

initials scarred in tree bark
pin cushion charm
dog's teeth in your forearm
have you seen this man
since I learned the trick from Jekyll

I Learned The Trick From Jekyll

Noir/Lo-fi influenced musician, author (The Midnight Cabaret, Calliope Steam, Living Paint), and collage artist