Prelude (Can We Be Bad?)
Can we be bad?
Not some cartoonish crazy, or manhating mad.
Maybe it’s not so easy
To paint a picture in more colours than black and white and red
But there’s a palette-full of others, that could be used instead
Can we be cruel
Complex and conflicted
Break every rule that the writers have scripted
The evil that men do can women do as well
Or should that be as badly, who can tell
We could be bad
Not to say we’re supposed to
But there’s a choice to be had
We could if we chose to
You could paint a picture in black and white and pink
But that picture could be bigger
Don’t you think
Can we be bad
I could be bad
Doesn’t mean I’m not sorry
Doesn’t mean I’m not sad
To have caused you such worry
I guess I just invite you to consider what I do
Ask yourself hon what you would have done if it had been you
Little Liar
Told a story of many parts
Told a story of many strands
For the kindling of minds
The melting of hearts
The wringing of hands
And the winning of friends
Knew my listeners, their notions and their needs
As a fortune teller reads an open palm
It’s a question of voice
And a question of tone
Choose your words wisely, my love
Say them like a charm
In among the victories, the undiscovered crimes
But I wonder sometimes
What if every time I shouted fire
You only answered little liar
Oh and if I promised not to deceive
What if you answered little liar
I do not believe you
I told a story in many ways:
Tragic accident, terrible disease
Mysterious disappearance.
I knew my audience;
I had enough experience
The know the best lies come in threes
I lied for camouflage; I lied for shame,
Was like a game with a wheel to spin
I lied for freedom, I lied for fun
I lied about the things I wished I could have done
I lied to win
Was all so easy and it all seemed so true
But I wonder sometimes and I still do
I told a story so very well
I told a story so very tall
That no-one could see, no-one but me
That a castle made of fairydust and cobwebs
Is liable to fall
But still I lied; I lied for grief
Hidden in a drawer and seldom seen
I lied for the thrill of love and belief
I lied for the people I had lost, and the ones I’d never been
Told a story of many parts
Told a story of many strands
For the kindling of minds
The melting of hearts
The wringing of hands
And the winning of friends
Annabel
The mirror cracks, the raven talks
A woman opens up a box
And watches in surprise
The forest walks, the river burns
Upon a dime the planet turns
The oceans meet the skies
Stranger at the library door
And I am changed for evermore
A duckling to a swan
Queenly sweep of silken sleeve
And everything that I believed is wrong
It only takes a single twist
A flicker of a bracelet on a wrist
A telephone to ring
Freeze the frame; the world is still
I feel the same but know I never will be
In anything, Annabel
A lunar scholar knows the phases
Of the moon, and so I followed you,
And I am following
Caviar and feathers fine
A hotel bar, a chorus line
A new scene to rehearse
I learned the things that you preferred
I hung upon your every word
I read you like a verse
The things we do just to belong
And yes I knew that it was wrong
But still I couldn’t stop
A poisoned chalice is a thrill
Into Wonderland I fell
And chased another drop
Stranger at the library door
I am changed for evermore
With a wave of magic wand
We stand upon a wooded slope
And see the world we know, and hope to see a wider world beyond
Nora’s Story
The lights on the harbour were dreamy and bright
As we swayed arm in arm down the sun warmed street
We should not have gone to the party last night
But there were places to go, she said, people to meet
Twelve hours later; I stand here alone
At this glass fronted restaurant where you wait for your daughter
I am not her keeper nor her chaperone
But I should have made certain we went home together
She’s probably missing her keys or her clothes
Where she is currently nobody knows
I’m oh so sorry to tell you; oh so sorry to say
I know she hoped she would be here
But she will not be coming today
The bar on the beach where the music was hard
The effortless terrace, the picture folk swarming,
The house in the hills, the security guard
Who called me a taxi at three in the morning
The sweet-smelling jasmine that clung to the wall
Like an autograph hunter in search of its prey
Clear as a bell, I remember it all
And the look on her face when she told me she’d stay
Isn’t it funny, isn’t it sad
She’s missing the best chance that she’s ever had
Morning came quietly over the sea
From a deep dreamless sleep I opened my eyes
The apartment was quiet, quiet as could be
She hadn’t come home, it was no surprise
Quick over cobblestone walkways I came
Hurried and hot, hardly knowing the way
And no way of knowing who is to blame
I’m sorrier, sorrier than I can say
Here and Now
Summer finds me in silence
Without a stage to tread
Far from the noise and the violence
Of the scene that I have fled
I find myself in the quietness
I was hard to find
All of my life I was looking
Pretended I didn’t mind
Don’t want to go nowhere else, when I know
The land is a gladsome round
Have you ever seen more blue or more green
Has there been a peace more profound
Than the here and now
A changeling came to the wilderness
In search of the same release
You can wear any old.costume she.tells me
Layer it piece by piece
But nothing suits like the truth does it
Nothing is easier to wear
All.of the clothes that you had in your closet
Have vanished into the air
Maybe we’ll drift like cargo ships
Maybe we’ll stay as friends
With secrets we trade like casino chips
Maybe it just depends
I like to think that one day
We’ll remember the fun we had
We’ll talk over gin and a biscuit tin
Of the good things we did and the bad
All lyrics Copyright Julia Gray 2018