Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away upon the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
If birds fly over the rainbow
Why oh why can't I?

*******

Why can’t I?

Why can’t I find my rainbow?
Why can’t I find my joy?

‘Over the rainbow’ is another place
Can’t find it if I keep travelling 
with a mirror in front of my face.

I want the world to look like me, 
So I’m the one in control
But it just doesn’t answer to us, 
That’s not how the Universe rolls

I force the world to look like me
But I don’t know who I am
So it slips through my fingers, and trickles away
I panic and trip where I stand

How many times have I gone abroad
Then whined how all things are ‘foreign’
I expect others to do all the work
An attitude I find abhorrent

Birds can fly over the rainbow
They don’t carry my baggage
If I want to soar up high with them all
I must accept the challenge

Acknowledge the mirror is all that I see
And want to see beyond it
Accept that my only control In the world 
Is how I choose to respond to it

So I topple the mirror I have made of myself
Now I see more than simply reflections
The scattered expressions I find in the shards
Throw up question after question after question

‘What happens if?’ is my new theme for life
It’s how I approach each new day
It leads me to places I’d never have gone
When I thought mine was the only right way

What happens if I take the time
To see life through another’s eyes?
What happens if I take the first step
If I am the one who complies
With the way that somebody else lives
Learn their language, their rhythm, their rhyme
Learn to dance to the music they live
Learn how to keep their own time

What happens if I welcome surprise
Rather than dread, hate or fear it?
What happens is those shards rearrange
And reflect back to me my new spirit

Actually, that isn’t quite right
My spirit is not a new one
Surprise just strips a lifetime of layers
The spirit now shown is my true one

But this just isn’t a one time fix, 
Flip a switch and it’s now all done
It’s a lifetime’s journey towards my better self
Make each day a step up from the last one

This is how we change the world
Each person, each hour, each breath
Let go of our preconceived notions
Understand change does not equal death

I’m doing my best to work on myself
On this journey I’m determined to thrive
‘Over the rainbow’ is my promised land
I’m doing my best to arrive

Over the Rainbow (Beat "Locked in the Confines" by Conscious Route)

MONSTER
I trusted you to keep me safe
But you shared me with the world
Instead of being safe in your arms
Into the maelstrom I was hurled

You left me open to destruction
Tossed by the whimsies of fate
A target for all the bitter, cruel words
You were so happy to translate

Did you ever really love me?
Was this always your design?
Build me up, let them tear me down
A broken idol for your shrine

You’re a monster in the making
Your vile footprint expands
But I will not be one who withers away
From the absence of your hands

I’ll extract your claws from my body
One by one, and let the blood flow
I’ll nourish my roots my own way
Away from your shadow, I’ll grow

Monster (in progress)

CHORUS
Choose
I have to choose
I’m forced to choose

If I refuse to choose
Life’s tide will carry me anyway
My only choice for a voice
Is to steer

If I can’t make this choice
To guide myself to a new place
I’ll end up someplace
But I can’t stay here

V1
A, B, C or D
Four roads in front of me
I can’t see 
Where any lead
How can I tell 
Which one I need

V2
You say ‘the road
Less traveled is best’
And I should put that
To the test
But I’ve not traveled
Any of these
Your experience gives me
No guarantees

CHORUS
Choose
I have to choose
I’m forced to choose

If I refuse to choose
Life’s tide will carry me anyway
My only choice for a voice
Is to steer

If I can’t make this choice
To guide myself to a new place
I’ll end up someplace
But I can’t stay here

V3
So how can I choose
Each outcome a blank
Is this really my life
Or just a sick prank
I’m blind if I step
And deaf if I fall
Does my choice really even
Matter at all?

CHORUS
Choose
I have to choose
I’m forced to choose

If I refuse to choose
Life’s tide will carry me anyway
My only choice for a voice
Is to steer

If I can’t make this choice
To guide myself to a new place
I’ll end up someplace
But I can’t stay here
But I can’t stay here

Crossroads - draft 3

SongSeeds Day 3: Cover of Foreign Lander by Red Molly

I thought I was the only one
Thought what we had was real
I just didn’t realize
You were far from my ideal.

I thought we had a future
We were the perfect pair
Thought I had you to myself
Didn’t know I had to share

What a fool I was
For letting my love blossom
When every smile you gave me
Was just you playing possum

You had another lover
And a few more on the side
You hurt more than just my pride
Now we women stand together
Arm in arm and side by side
Yeah you’d better run and hide.

What a fool I was
For letting my love blossom
When every smile you gave me
Was just you playing possum

Every word of love you spoke
Dripped with sweet deceit
Time and again you lied to me
Lather, Rinse Repeat

What a fool I was
For letting my love blossom
When every smile you gave me
Was just you playing possum

What a fool I was
For letting my love blossom
When every smile you gave me
Was just you playing possum

What a fool I was
For letting my love blossom
When every smile you gave me
Was just you playing possum

What a fool I was

Playing Possum (J*M*A with lyrics by CAC)

Lilacs
Filled the air
Suddenly
You were there
In my heart
In my mind
On the day you
Left me behind
Goodbye

It’s so hard
The way I feel
Seeing you
Seemed so real
The way you looked
When you walked away
My heart went with you
That last day
Goodbye

Lilacs
Bring it back
Every time
Like an attack
On the life
I’ve tried to build
Keep stepping in
The love I’ve spilled 
Goodbye

I can’t go on
Anymore
My heart
Is still so sore
So I’ll leave
Myself I’ll save
Plant some lilacs
By my grave
Goodbye

Lilacs

Tried you on for a while
Just to see if you’d fit
Turns out you weren’t my size
I finally had to admit
So glad I sampled
Before paying the price
So glad I listened
To my mama’s advice

You were too loose
Where it counted most
As I soon came to see
The other women 
Who were wearing you too
Were just too much for me 

And you were too tight
Where I needed to be free
Restricting my every movement
You thought I’d obey
Your every command
Much to my amusement

So I leave you now 
On the dressing room floor
For someone else to purchase
But if I meet them
Before they buy
I’ll share with them these verses

Cause we ladies must
Stick together
Or we haven’t got a prayer
So if they ask me
‘What’s his sign?’
I’ll tell them ‘Buyer Beware’

Buyer Beware

A dash of cassowary
And a clowder of cats
A quiver of cobras
And a colony of bats

Deceits of lapwings
Exaltations of larks
But where is my place
On this collective noun ark

Congregations of people
And of crocodiles
Conspiracies of lemurs
Can we talk a while?

Flocks for parrots
And pigeons
And seagulls and swifts
And tourists and turkeys
Are you getting my drift?

There’s a hideousness of doves
A plausibility of gnus
And lounges of lizards
Think I’ve dated a few

There’s parliaments of owls
Ptarmigans and rooks
But only me, myself and I
You see how that looks?

There’s charms of finches
Which leave me entranced
And rumbas of rattlesnakes
Who knew that they danced?


There’s conspiracies of lemurs
And sneaks of weasels
But don’t get involved
Those just lead to upheaval

Multitudes, my ego cries
I’m more than just me, myself and i
So what is my collective noun?
What word contains my inner crowd?

Pontification of preachers
Superfluity of nuns
A fidget of altar boys
The magnitude stuns

The richness of minks
And passels of opossums
Creating this flow
My vocabulary blossoms

Kaleidoscope of butterflies
Kindles of kittens
Amongst this plethora of words
Where do I fit in?

A tassel of strippers
A flourish of strumpets
What word do I use
To blow my own trumpet?

Romps of otters and
Kindness of ravens
Shimmers of hummingbirds
Decked out like mavens

Hives of bees
Those hills of beans
Can you see why I might
Feel unseen?

Radiance of cardinals
And slithers of snakes
Snarls of leopards
What form will mine take?

Watches have venues
And strange as it sounds
There’s even a catch
Of collective nouns

Multitudes, my ego cries
I’m more than just me, myself and i
So what is my collective noun?
What word contains my inner crowd?

What word contains my inner crowd?

Carol Ann Cullen