Friday after work
Eat the oval, slur your words

I've been thinking this is what the living do
Is there a part of me that's killing you

Window's open, nighttime's pouring through

I've seen the story stop
When there's more a person wants

I've been thinking this is what the living do
I am living, I remember you

Window's open, nighttime's pouring through



a song based on Marie Howe's poem "What the Living Do"

What The Living Do (Demo)

i saw a horse the day you died
my small, hot breath; its huge, dark eye
a pine tree split by lightning strike:
one half green, one half broken neon sign

shocking confines

i rode out on your favorite bike
shedding our dna into that desert highway
rabbits sprayed out left and right
a wedge of dry grasses trembling like a boat’s wake

Shocking Confines

press into the mirror 
it's cold and i don't feel at home anymore 
where the bats are not violently swooping 
my mind is a cave where they're silently roosting 
the light that lights my way
casts shadows behind me

press into the water
it's cold and i don't feel a thing anymore
every song is a small variation in subject
the theme is still solitude, stillness, and silence
can't help but fill up 
with the word for itself
silence can't help 
but fill up with the word for itself

Bat City Song (Sketch)

shout all you want – there is nothing left in me to respond. i’m like a candle burning at the bottom of a pond. either i’ve used up all my love or all my love has used me up. here we are again – it’s always 4am with you and i don’t want to fight. i’m like a candle burning in a bonfire. my god, you’ve wasted all my time. my god, don’t make me watch you cry. we can’t go back – now the territory’s smaller than the map. i’m like a candle: i am down to my last match.

Austin

Burn Song (Sketch)

The Evidence


beautiful weather breeds flies that cloud the air 
between the screen & my eyes
a beautiful mountain rimmed with golden light

the officer hit pause & minimized the window
did discourse make me soft & bruised like an apple?
was that the image of a person on the pixelated slope?

if i don't identify the suspect will you lock me in that room?
if i don't comply with the investigation am i guilty too?

carve the notice in snow
the alphabet gets shallower every day
they can make a body disappear like sugar in rain

i used to be gentle
i used to be capable of tenderness
i used to be grateful
but that was before i saw the evidence


(austin tx, 2018)

The Evidence (Acoustic Demo)

i wake up and check my phone   
i fell asleep in the glow of the screen 
i am chiaroscuric
and contemporarily conscious of framing
a bad painting
god it’s humiliating

and i feel most alone
when my heart leaps at a notification
of some sponsored content
and i can’t deny that i thought that you wanted
to say something
god it’s humiliating

switch on silent mode
by now my friends all know
not to ask where you’ve been since the summer
or why didn’t i get that cute new girl’s number
i’m still waiting
god it’s humiliating

i can’t close my eyes
my mind’s still on your time zone
it’s morning: you’re going to work
it’s 2am: coffee, your white collared shirt
it’s evening: you’re dreaming, i’m longing to visit
the museum of your life without me in it

i’m curating
god it’s humiliating

i know your weather (better than you)
i know you better (better than you)

Curating (Demo)

RAIN GUIDE TRACK DO NOT TRIM (NO HARMONIES)

RAIN GUIDE TRACK (DO NOT TRIM) WITH HARMONIES

over my left shoulder
grasshopper, grasshopper

over my left shoulder
i pull the leg off it

the pain was a sign
that i was still alive
a conduit through which could occur
that rudimentary thought: 'i hurt'

what an ugly heifer
no daughter, no daughter

what a lovely udder (i'm flattered!)
i pull the leg off it 

or it hurts, at least
whatever's left of me
i dreamed i was a torturer
but that was just vestigiality

Grasshopper

come closer you're not far from home you're farther than you know
and the neighbors have already closed their curtains shed their clothes

my bleating babe you croak you cry you crawl into my cave
i won't ever let you out again to see the light of day

all good children all stay hidden
i was born without a shadow
i'm hungry and i'm hollow

you're sick and sore this world will pour you out like rain onto the ground
i will give you shelter if you promise never to go out

all good children all good riddance
i was born to call and echo
i starve but i can't swallow

Good Children

sketches for unproduced songs / the barest skeletons
official releases at annelysegelman.com/
older sketches are here: soundcloud.com/shoulderblades

Annelyse Gelman (Demos)

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