Catching Ducks

From "grey":


the sky is grey
the sand is grey
and the ocean is grey

and I feel right at home
in this stunning monochrome
alone in my way

I smoke and I drink
and every time I blink
I have a tiny dream

but as bad as I am
I'm proud of the fact
that I'm worse than I seem

Labels: ani difranco

From "pixie":


the man behind the counter looks like he's got
a half a dozen places he'd rather be
and furthermore it looks like he's prepared
to take it all out on me
buddy, I don't really care what your problem is
just don't make it mine
come on kids, let's all hold hands
and pretend we're having a good time

maybe you don't like your job
maybe you didn't get enough sleep
well, nobody likes their job
nobody got enough sleep
maybe you just had
the worst day of your life
but, you know, there's no escape
and there's no excuse
so just suck up and be nice

Labels: ani difranco

From "God's Country":


state trooper thinks I drive too fast
pulled me over to tell me so
I say, out here on the prairie
any speed is too slow
I miss Brooklyn
I miss my crew
let's start over
I missed my cue
guess I forgot
who I was talking to

I should have recognized
that fierce look in his eyes
I've seen it in my mirror
so many times
he's going to put his two cents in
'cause he's got a gun
but I'm gonna put in three
'cause history owes me one

guess I came out here to see some
stuff for myself
I mean, why leave the telling
up to everybody else?
this may be god's country
but this is my country, too
move over mr. holiness
and let the little people through

thank you for serving and protecting
the likes of me
thank you for the ticket
now can I leave?
you know I have left everywhere
that I have ever been
I don't really recommend it though
not like anybody asked me

maybe you and I will meet again someday
I've been known to come down this road
maybe it is destiny
and then again
maybe not
I don't know

Labels: ani difranco

From "studying stones"


I am out here studying stones
trying to learn to be less alive
using all of my will
to keep very still
still even on the inside
I've cut all of the pertinent wires
so my eyes can't make that connection
I am holding my breath
I am feigning my death
when I'm looking in your direction

'course numb is an old hat
old as my oldest memories
see that one's my mother
and that one's my father
and that one in the hat, that's me

it's a skill I'd hoped to abandon
when I got out on the open road
but any more pent up emotion
and I think I'm gonna explode

there's never been an endeavor so strange
as trying to slow the blood in my veins
to keep my face blank
as a stone that just sank
until not a ripple remains
I am high above the tree line
sitting cross legged on the ground
when all of the forbidden fruit has fallen and rotted
that's when I'm gonna come down

'course numb is an old hat
old as my oldest memories
see that one's my mother
and that one's my father
and that one in the hat, that's me

it's a skill I'd hoped to abandon
when I got out on the open road
but any more pent up emotion
and I think I'm gonna explode

Labels: ani difranco

From "the diner":


I'm calling from the diner
the diner on the corner
I ordered two coffees
one is for you
I was hoping you'd join me
'cause I ain't got no money
and I really miss you
I should mention that, too

yes, I know what time it is
in fact, I just checked
I even know the date
and the month
and the year
I know i haven't been sleeping
and when I do
I just dream of you, dear

I miss watching you
drool on your pillow
I miss watching you
pull on your clothes
I miss listening
to you in the bathroom
flushing the toilet
blowing your nose

I'm calling from the diner
the diner on the corner
I ordered two coffees
one is for you
the cups are so close
that the steam is rising
in one stream

I think you're the least fucked up
person I've ever met
and that may be as close to the real thing
as I'm ever gonna get
but my quarter's gonna run out now
or so I'm told
so I guess I'd better go sit down
and wait for you
till my coffee gets cold

Labels: ani difranco

From "not a pretty girl":


I am not a pretty girl
that is not what I do
I ain't no damsel in distress
and I don't need to be rescued
so put me down, punk
maybe you'd prefer a maiden fair?
isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?

Labels: ani difranco

From "small world":


she was shaking and talking
louder and louder
each sentence was sifted
to a very fine powder
her face was wet and tight
her grip was cold and light
"a strong wind could blow you down"
i heard myself say
"word up sister
a strong wind
could take me away"

i said "how long have
you been at large
they told me you were stashed
last time i asked"
she said "i've been out now
for all of three hours
i just resurfaced
and here you are
i must admit
that it has been hard
so far"

i said "skeletons are fine
your closet or mine"
and we took turns recounting
the details of lost time
and when we had both
admitted it all
we threw our heads back
and laughed until we cried
we laughed because the world
is absurd and beautiful and small

there we were
washed up on the curb
as the rush hour traffic
went out with the tide
and i was aware that
with every word spoken and shared
i could see her shaking subside
i said "sister looks to me
like you're going to be fine"

Labels: ani difranco

From the song "Manhole":


I'm holding here a book
notable, but not the greatest
stolen for me by the latest
in a long line of thieves
and I'm just about to drop it
down that manhole of memories
when I realize it doesn't bother me
like love's mementos usually do
and I look up to see who's different here
the latest me or the latest you

'course, you're the kind of guy who doesn't lie
he just doctors everything
chooses some unassuming finger
and quietly moves his wedding ring
who rewrites his autobiography
for any pretty girl who'll sing
but you can't fool the queen, baby
cuz I married the king

and maybe it was I who betrayed his majesty
with no opposite reality
like a puddle with no reflection
of the sky or the trees
but after my dreaded beheading
I tied that sucker back on with a string
and I guess I'm pretty different now
considering

Labels: ani difranco

From the song "Not a Pretty Girl":


I am not a pretty girl
That is not what I do
I ain't no damsel in distress
and I don't need to be rescued
So put me down, punk
Wouldn't you'd prefer a maiden fair?
Isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?

Labels: ani difranco

From "32 Flavors":


god help you if you are an ugly girl
'course, too pretty is also your doom
cuz everyone harbors a secret hatred
for the prettiest girl in the room
and god help you if you are a phoenix
and you dare to rise up from the ash
a thousand eyes will smoulder with jeaousy
while you're just flying past

Labels: ani difranco

From "Bliss Like This":


I said Venice
And you heard Vegas
Now I say: either way,
Baby, let's go

Labels: ani difranco

"Swandive"

cradling the softest, warmest part of you in my hands
feels like a little baby bird fallen from the nest
I think that your body is something I understand
I think that I'm happy, I think that I'm blessed

I've a lack of inhibition
I've had a loss of perspective
I've had a little bit to drink
and it's making me think
that I can jump ship and swim
that the ocean will hold me
that there's got to be more
than this boat I'm in

'cuz they can call me crazy if I fail
all the chance that I need
is one-in-a-million
and they can call me brilliant
if I succeed
gravity is nothing to me, moving at the speed of sound
I'm just going to get my feet wet
until I drown

I teeter between tired
and really, really tired
I'm wiped and I'm wired, but I guess it's just as well
so I built my own empire
out of car tires and chicken wire
I'm queen of my own compost heap
and I'm getting used to the smell

and I've had a lack of information
but I've had a little revelation
I'm climbing up on the railing
trying not to look down
I'm going to do my best swan dive
into shark-infested waters
I'm gonna pull out my tampon
and start splashing around

'cuz I don't care if they eat me alive
I've got better things to do than survive
I've got the memory of your warm skin in my hands
and I've got a vision of blue sky and dry land

cradling the hardest, heaviest part of me in my hands
the ship is pitching and heaving, my limbs are bobbing and weaving
and I think this is something I understand
I just need a couple vaccinations for my far-away vacation
I'm going to go ahead and go boldly because a little bird told me
that jumping is easy, that falling is fun
right up 'til you hit the sidewalk, shivering and stunned

and they can call me crazy if I fail
all the chance that I need
is one-in-a-million
and they can call me brilliant
if I succeed
gravity is nothing to me
moving at the speed of sound
I'm just gonna get my feet wet
until I drown...

Labels: ani difranco

I've been catching up on my DVDs of The L Word, which makes me think of Ani DiFranco. In particular, her song "If It Isn't Her":


standing like john wayne
she is full framed
she is center stage
and my imagination is
rattling in its cage
I didn't really notice
when everything else disappeared
but as far as I'm concerned
if it isn't her
it isn't here

she says "do I know you?"
I say "well, no, not biblically
but I've been waiting for you come
and talk to me
I have been playing
too many of those boy-girl games"
she says "honey you are safe here
this is a girl-girl thing"

I told him I loved him
so he thought I'd roll over and play dead
he was god's gift to hypocrisy
with weak knees and a big fat head
she says "honey don't tell me
that old story
you are boring me
just tell me do you like me
tell me what you're gonna do
now that you're free"

standing like john wayne
she is full framed
she is center stage
and my imagination
is rattling in its cage
I didn't really notice
when everything else disappeared
but as far as I'm concerned
if it isn't her
it isn't here
as far as I'm concerned
if it isn't her
it isn't here

Labels: ani difranco

Ani DiFranco, "Blood in the Boardroom":


sitting in the boardroom
the I'm-so-bored room
listening to the suits
talk about their world
they can make straight lines
out of almost anything
except for the line
of my upper lip when it curls

dressed in my best greasy skin
and squinty eyes
I'm the only part of summer here
that made it inside
in the air-conditioned building
decorated with corporate flair
I wonder
can these boys smell me bleeding
though my underwear?


there's men wearing the blood
of the women they love
there's white wearing the blood of the brown
but every woman learns to bleed from the moon
and we bleed to renew life
every time it's cut down

I got my vertebrae all stacked up
as high as they go
I but I still feel myself sliding
from the earth that I know
so I excuse myself and leave the room
say my period came early
but it's not a minute too soon


I go and find the only other woman on the floor
it's the secretary sitting at the desk by the door
I ask her if she's got a tampon I could use
she says
oh honey, what a hassle for you
sure I do
you know I do

I say
it ain't no hassle, no, it ain't no mess
right now it's the only power
that I possess
these businessmen got the money
they got the instruments of death
but I can make life
I can make breath


sitting in the boardroom
the I'm-so-bored room
listening to the suits talk about their world
I didn't really have much to say
the whole time I was there
so I just left a big brown bloodstain
on their white chair

Labels: ani difranco

This week: "bodily" by Ani DiFranco


you broke me bodily
the heart ain't the half of it
and i'll never learn to laugh at it
in my good natured way
in fact i'm laughing less in general
but i learned a lot at my own funeral
and i knew you'd be the death of me
so i guess that's the price i pay

i'm trying to make new memories
in cities where we fell in love
my head just barely above
the darkest water i've ever known
you had me in that cage
you had me jumpin through those hoops for you
still, i think i'd stoop for you
stoop for your eyes alone

from that bomb shell moon in yet another lovely dress
to the deep mahogany sheen of a roach
i am trying to take an appreciative approach
to life in your wake
i focus on the quiet now
and occasionally i'll fall asleep somehow
and emptiness has its solace
in that there's nothing left to take

Labels: ani difranco

This week's quote is from Ani DiFranco's song "Fixing Her Hair":


she's looking in the mirror
she's fixing her hair
and I touch my head
to feel what isn't there
she's humming a melody
we learned in grade school
she's so happy and I think
this is not cool
'cause I know the guy
she's been talking about
I have met him before
and I think what is this
beautiful woman settling for

she bends her breath
when she talks to him
I can see her features begin to blur
as she pours herself
into the mold he made for her
and for everything he does
she has a way to rationalize
she tells me he don't mean
what he do
she tells me he called
to apologize

she still doesn't have what she deserves
but she wakes up smiling every day
she never really expected more
that's just not the way
we are raised
and I say to her
you know, there's plenty
of really great men out there
but she doesn't hear me
she's looking in the mirror
she's fixing her hair

Labels: ani difranco