Wrote this crushing on a boy one summer. Found it. Kinda like it. 

Have a happy day!
Love, bee

"This Is Gonna Hurt" - Bri Bruce (Demo Slice of A Poet's Pizza Pie)

"Quarter-Life Crises" lyrics (verse 1 through rap break)
Bri Bruce © 2015

"i remember thinking that by 25 i’d have a few more things figured out figured out
but now i’m 27 and i don’t know no more than when i was playing seven minutes in heaven no kiss yellin
heaven help me 
thought they embellishin
the sting of the 20something crises
	you can also be 33

Chorus
When you wake up
notice the rut 
and that you’re deepening it steeping in it 
til you're almost cheapening the meaning you quit clinging to
at two or 22, i don’t know what’s up with me too 
Too old too young 
to freak out, 
freak out it’ll all work out they say 
i’ve got my doubts 
i’ve got my faith
		faith so new yet fully true when i awoke and choked on noticing I wasn’t doing anything interesting just tilling weeds same old green every week nothin unique
til i freaked and i took a stage i read a page so blasé it blew them all away and i cried for days 
never the same lost my mind nearly went blind but no nevermind. it was just a quarterlife crisis...." 

+ another two verses set and performed around town by yours truly. And by town, I mean my living room. And by yours truly, I am. 

Hope someone else is helped by this. Really scary time in my life. Felt like everything falling apart in a completely new, unanticipated way...following the same ol' path 'til I awoke as if from a nap and snapped out of it. 

Found music and freelancing and odd jobs and a lot of loneliness, honestly. We'll see how it turns out. I do like pirouettes. 


"Quarter-Life Crises" - Bri Bruce (sample selection)

Any instruments could be added, really. It's not one I'm working on, though, so anyone else...?

"Katana Mañana" (lyrics)
Bri Bruce © 2015-2016

"you were a steak knife looking a katana in the eyes
thinking you the samurai, then blinking in surprise
reprise: you left your shoes, oh. my
stupid rude god why no goodbye 

and when our cars passed anew, you didn't lift your hand, dude
i did but maybe too late and i'm sorry anyway, you do
know it's cool
i'm too much for me sometimes too, ooo
CH
i did see you though standing there, heartsoul bared
GoodPeople beautiful IPA suitable for early autumn night air, 
but could you fight fair, but could you fight fair
you never stared and cared enough to dare 
so what we shared was so brave we were the stage
ageless and still waiting and less bravely 
to see you again, 
my holy friend

In whole new worlds we danced with no romance
and i'm sayin thank you man and still cant give another chance, 
oh wait you didnt ask
i know you've got more class

even if you never passed a single one in school you were the sickest fool i ever knew
it's true you blew
me away
then left me balancing on a manaña's may-be
c'mon baby 
no

i was a sweetnlow waitress first tasting bleachy tables
and i hated it my shame i couldnt make that place my escape
i'd take yours make no mistake
i'd nibble my bones to cornflakes
if i could take your pain

CH...
to see you again,
my holy friend
oh that's right YOU DIDN'T ASK
i know you've got more class
than higher ed schools, your glow the pass this fool needed a ruler and you 
you blew me away
i never knew
someone like you

left me balancing on a katana blade on stage ripped my heart out like a page musta scared you like the plague that you weren't so brave as one itty bitty lad-y was that it, black draggin
or where you been?

can't sense what city i'm in?
when i can sense your mental state from within?

and still i'm just as bruised as the clueless waitress you trained to bus tables where's the moral of this fable
i thought our friendship stable then you turned the tables
so ungraceful in that moment i'm glad god was on it cuz
i was astonished

and still am.

and still i see you. 
dude you're so cool. 
hope we hang again one day, it's just a little bitty big bruise
i'm kinda used to it as a ninjaballerina masochist no shit it's no big deal i'll heal, here feel, the swelling's really real. and up front, i told you the deal. 

did you think you could steal me away. it hurts so much i feel like broken clay. not shattered enough to be thrown away, what a relief that'd be lately
and still i'm staying
keeping on without you
i believe in you no doubting that's true
you can do anything you want to, so long as YOU believe in you.
someone helped me with that first too. wasn't present one day with the morning dew
and still, your departure leaves me so sure i wasn't wrong before that i wanna walk out my own front door
and stop this metaphorical whoredom
bc you were smart or dumb enough to run
and i was finally having some fun
(and not alone; how did those flip-flops feels on the road?)

because i learn lessons as i teach them, self-defeating system
also calling listening
and you didn't (good at pretending, to)

seeeee me standing there
Verbal Urkel Certain she'd be a-hurtin
cuz you a bursting with shine
and mine's the kind that took some time to know
itself and still it's hell 

MCs at it rapping like they never knew a nap or tap out
well KO you showed your clout
and i'm still holding off the doubt
that we didn't and won't count
i'd mount your head on my wall, if i didn't like waterfalls
katana mañana i'd follow with hakuna matata if disney didn't
rip culture like cultures ripped from continents and made to BoJangle or cha-chingle the pants, a pain eased 
by chats and bromance in the memoryrooms of an unforgettable dance..."

"Katana Mañana" - Bri Bruce

One of my very best friends in the whole multiverse sometimes doesn't believe I really love her or even that I want her in my life. 

This song is how I felt upon hearing that ridiculous statement, "You wouldn't *really* miss me if I were gone."

Ripped this song out like a knife from my thigh one evening for her. So she could feel it. 

And I share it so that YOU know you are loved too. 

Because I realized that I freaking feel the EXACT same illogical, counterintuitive way: That no one would miss me if I were gone. 

And yet... I am loved. And if I have to be, so do you. ;)

I am worthy of love (even when I feel freakin' WORTH.LESS)<3
;

and the turtle-thing refers to someone in a joke or fable or something asking "What's holding the earth up?"

"A turtle," came the (scientist's? yogi's?) reply.

The woman panicked: "& UNDER THAT ONE?"

"My dear," the metaphor replies, "It's turtles all the way down."
∞ 
Turtles All The Way Down
Bri Bruce © 2015-2016

Friend how could you say you don’t know the way you matter to my life
you being alive helps me strive one dumb day at a time
and while the strength beneath my bones grits the groan that i could do this alone

i don’t want to
and i wanna do ALL AMY AND TINA DO with 

you and not screw each other over we’ll have storms and they’ll blow over scared to let you too 	much closer 
til I feel your heart open though i’m never sure of knowing anything meant for growing i’m only 	showy (lonely)
my hypocrisy steady as the breeze 
or if you please i’m guessing it was less a breeze more a sneeze from a 

more a leaf-blower
sorry i blew you around
even sorrier		
it’s turtles all the way down 

sorry i blew you around

blew you off pissed you off fucked off when it was too much
cutting you deeper than you knew knives could see and i screamed for weeks and weeks of that you know noth
thing and i know nothing of what you know
only that it’s my greatest and thus most dangerous 

hope that you’ll
stay on the 

boat i’ll float us if we drowin show up when the chips are down and in a pinch i’ll be the lynchpin
	that holds us in
coast us when the town aint ready much too heavy leaded negatives i’ll give the shiv whatever 	that is
toast us when the numb aint the instead the cold is quieter than the dead and i bet it works out 	for us and yet
i’m scared you’ll forget
what you already know
it’s turtles, valerie, the name a rose. it’s painful but perhaps a show. let’s be each other’s 
front row.



"Turtles All The Way Down" - Bri Bruce

Older piece I never finished. I like. 

"Just Thought I'd Let You Know" lyrics
Bri Bruce © 2015-2016

"V1
Repeat-running conversations with you through my head
Picking future phrasing listening to all you’ve said
and that’s not me or at least it’s not who I wanna be
should keep my silence or trust you with what I really mean

V2
I do this thing where I fall intense-with-no-sense in love
It hurts as much as time so I need you to use kidgloves
the strength’s an act, a choice I’m told I wear it very well
Love me more than for that stupid, shallow, shifty spell	
	Inside I quiver like a breeze-brushed bell

Chorus
But I don’t know I don’t know
I think I know how this story goes
but I can’t read you
 
I don’t know I don’t know 
I’m going hard or I’m going home
And I, just thought I’d let you know

other verse options:

Since we’ve been friends I’ve always known one day I would want more
And then you came last night, my wish standing outside my door
it took you all the night to lose the fright for one sweet kiss
it gave me tingles but it wasn’t anything like this

If you’re scared then take my hand your fear against my skin
you’ll like it soft I know because I know I like it slow
that’s not the same you’d say and I could like my hips roll
they answer better than these silly words could ever hope

I want to silver-platter offer you a single phrase
Its perfect brevity enclosing what I cannot say
It’s easier to rhyme than lift my longing in the air
Maybe I’ll find the time to just pretend that I don’t care

That shooting star we saw was all ever I need of why
It’s everything and some days barely even gets me by
I’d like to know how deep you’ll go cuz I am kinda shy
when not in lipstick I can barely look you in the eye

if you want to chat I think I need it in a rap
it’s not a competition just a way of talking back
the left-brain structure juxtaposes against flowy right
that’s those emotions that want all of us with all my might"




"Just Thought I'd Let You Know" - Bri Bruce

Older song. Narrates itself!

Stupid Brave 
lyrics Bri Bruce © 2012 or '13

Thursday, lunch date
pb&h honey wheat, smiling sweet, blushing lookin’ at my feet
when it’s time to leave you look at me &    wink
“wanna head over to the park across the street?”

after our lunch, in the park on our backs
in my work dress and heels lying in the grass
we’re starin’ at the clouds and we’re talkin’ bout our dreams
i kinda hope you might be thinking of me 

Chorus
I don’t wanna be cautious
I want somebody to get lost in
Want someone who’’ll dive in
sink or swim
play to win
I want someone who gets excited
doesn’t hide it, try to fight it
I am scared and      unafraid
I...am stupid brave"

There's another set of verses and a rap-break part as well. 

That relationship didn't pan out btw. I'm still stupidbrave. 


"stupidbrave" - Bri Bruce

Just because I say nothing or am away, does not mean I am not praying for you, sending you love or positive energy -- or something in the mail soon! (for those of you who know me)

Written for my family, biological and extending and growing every day. 

Silent Love
Bri Bruce © 2015
"And the day came"... -Anaïs Nin

"I think about you every day
I think about you every way
you don’t know how my heart prays
Wait ain’t that godly, no our fathers, just your face
on my mantleplace i got you framed
and when i see it i inflate and
and breathe you love

Silent Love
lifts me 
up You are family to me
I think of many when i sing
ain’t a limit
to what my heart can fit in it
and you’re set
won’t let 
you go 

I stay and stay and stay and stay
from romance i may runaway and maybe can mean that too one day
but for you, my friend, a stranger I just met, my sister Britt, someone who quit or got sick or wicked or mixed up messed up
I just wanna say
'you’re tough' 'You're enough'"

etc
∞



"this silent love" - Bri Bruce

At the time I wrote this, it felt so vulnerable I couldn't share it.

Even if/when it doesn't seem it, I'm usually playing it "tougher" than I feel inside. Even when I'm saying that out loud. 

Hold Me Tonight
Bri Bruce © 2015-2016

"sometimes i cry when everything is fine
hold me tonight
just need you to hold me tonight

tell me everything is fine, tell me i'm allright 
even if i’m falling apart you still like me might even wife me
well don’t say that bit cuz i’ll panic
but sometimes yeah i’m thinking it
can’t help it
youre my boo and there’s nothing else i can do

except love you
so hold me tonight"


"Hold Me Tonight" - Bri Bruce

"Daddy" - Bri Bruce (in progress)

Pouring Out (Chillplay)

Soft

First draft.

Building, building...skills...and sounds...and generally gettin' down. 

Slipping Away (first draft)

We don't really *have* to care for much more than our self and bloodline. (If that.) 

This song honors those, though, who -- like its honoraries King, Debbie and Em -- choose to go above and beyond the minimum amount of concern for a person and love openly, despite genetics, creed, it being Monday... etc. 

It's a bold act, a brave one, in this world. And I thank all the surrogate parents loving all the children without a Day in their honor. 

Working lyrics, © Bri Bruce 2016 I reckon, but you can use if you want and/or want to work on this with me:
"This one's for you
for those of you who do not have a day
for those whom when the radio plays
songs to a Dad you turn away

this one's for you
for those of you who do not get a song
those of you without titles like Mom
but did and/or would still drop me off

and honestly i'm scared to sleep at night
and honestly don't wanna open my eyes
and honestly i'm scared to sleep at night
but honestly i have a real reprise
your kindness makes me glad to stay alive
(and be silly
so you know what)

this one is for you

thanks for all that each of you do
i wouldnt be here without you and i still don't have a clue
but i know i can always count on you and that more than meds gets me through
this and every day and moments and i'll sing until i'm blue
thank you

this one's for you"



Surrogate Parents - May 8 draft

A song sketch in honor of my friend Kirby, whose intentions always seem genuine. 

"The Kirby Song (Digging Deep)" song sketch

At 25 I fell in love with sound and a year later quit my desk job. 

2ish yrs later...
New Skills!: songwriting; lyrics; vocals in diff. styles; performing;  keyboard; acoustic guitar; harmonica; dance; djembe; small percussion, and -- MOST IMPORTANTLY -- 
riffs that moooooooove people. 

Dancing since I was two, music has always moved me. Literally. I write/compose/sing/live from that place. I want it raw, real, and I want it to make me moooooove. 

I love most everything but screechy sounds. 

And I need help. Co-writers, anyone?

(Currently I have about 100 pieces of music built with Logic Pro 9, now Logic Pro X files, which I slightly despise. Some finished; some not.)

Bri Bruce

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