1. |
Railway Lines
05:05
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They're electrifying the train lines
putting public art on the bridges
and it's just the sort of thing you've been writing in for
John just giggles on his saucer
he's visiting from Australia
he's come home for a cup of tea and to borrow your car
you say Son watch your speed on the main street
they should have kept in the crossings
they've turned walkers into targets out there
still it seems better now
out doing the rounds for the shopping
small grocers are appearing again
selling flowers outside
and you're attracting smiles from the cafe
you check your hair in the window glass
and like John says
you really do look better now you're all the way grey
always hoped to be a wise old man
when you ran for council
they called you a frustrated librarian
and you saw what they could do
with their money from developers
their people at the papers
they turned your own family against you
still you didn't hold it against the kids
when they begged to move away
because you were born before the motorway system
and you would wait for a new day as long as it would take
and maybe it's today
as you stare at the rain cleaned other side of the street
in new spring sunlight
maybe it's today
as the cars bank up at the railway lines
maybe it's today
as you step out with groceries on your shoulder
maybe it's today
as the children snigger at the new sculpture
and a car speeds around the corner
and you try to make eye contact with the driver in time
maybe it's today
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2. |
Bird Brains
04:09
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Bird brained
lanky and quiet
feeling outrun
so you come here
to the skate park where they flock around William's car
you know that he's weird and old
but he makes you believe
all this growing is going to turn you into something
your bones are pushing against your skin
thinning it out
you sort of believe it won't stop
until you can glide
away from the kids with growth spurts behind their eyes
smiles from teachers reach in places you can't find
now when you're taking off from the big ramp
you look higher each time
when you got that concussion
you felt so tired
they said you shouldn't be sleeping
but William didn't mind
he let you rest in the car
got out his scissors for chop
said you're going to go further than they are, Son
and you dreamed of wings
perching in his open hands
taking off from the lip and never needing to land it
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3. |
Sugar In The Petrol Tank
05:54
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Sugar in the petrol tank
there wasn't a lot that could be done
for your Land Rover
it's at peace at the mechanic's
dreaming of Africa
and when you drank from the bitter part of her
your arteries seized
and you were reborn
in the blood and water
that came rushing to free them
now you're wrestling with visions
you see her clothed in the colours of your kingdom
in the gilded portraits that hang
in the restaurants of your countrymen
this city is a test
for the son of a boundless privilege
they shout from cars or
they pretend you don't exist
but she found you
she loved you
for your honour, for your wisdom and
you had to take it out on someone
sugar in the petrol tank
intelligence tells you
the gas becomes a treacle-like substance
that she came up in the hardest suburbs
and you laughed when you pictured the image
broken down on the drawbridge
holding up ships and traffic
all around the river
and all your tantrums, your
giraffes and elephants
your planes and arcade games
she wore a blindfold
now you're kneeling
before her sword and scales
the city is a test
for the son of a boundless privilege
they shout from cars or
they pretend you don't exist
but she found you
she loved you
for your honor, for your wisdom and
you always took it out on someone
so go on and jump
from the highest point
let the army come
to catch your fall in a bed of swan's feathers
and carry you home
or send them off
claim a throne of your own
free under the river to dream of a shop
in the southern suburbs
a place to hang a portrait up
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4. |
The Songs Of Your Youth
03:53
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You are enamoured with the sound of her name
you graft it into the songs of your youth
and hum the tune against the roof of your mouth
on your drive to the hospital
and when you see her
it's like taking a scalpel from the packet
this city is ageing with no grace
they stare out your window
at the motorway and the smokestack
while you tell them how long it could be
and her beauty
is the only thing her whining generation
has given to the world
oh but
you would pay off her loan
if it could make her yours
you touch her back in surgery
as if you need to get past
and your expert fingers scan
the things underneath her scrubs
a fragile olive frame
a few monitored moles
a strong new strap
carrying redemption in tiny parcels
and at night
that motorway takes you
to a town where everyone is young
you operate the boiler at the kindergarten
and she's there
needles and forceps in her hair
and she knows all the songs you love
and she sings them while you're driving
she sings
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5. |
Water Underground
05:35
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I'm still in awe
at how you pulled it all off
and driving through the drylands
seeing irrigators installed
I think about the coup
you turned the rules on themselves
you engineered that miracle
to free the water underground
they said you'd never take the council down
but you just found your way around
called it a national crisis
you were in bed with the press
you understood from experience how to
make it fast and hard to digest oh you
left them dumbfounded, unemployable
chose their replacements yourself
all their science from the cities couldn't keep you
from the water underground
they said you'd never take the council down
but you just found your way around
nine years out of power
you had time to think it out
she was one of those friends
followed the rabbit hole to its end
and you knew what it meant
to get involved
and the industry couldn't help you
no, none of the farmers who owed you
they let you fight in that pit alone
but with elections still on hold
with the cattle turning up by the truckload
you can hear the drills working now
on that water underground
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6. |
A Friend From Argentina
05:22
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You live in this bar
that might imply that you are lonely
but it's not true
because you are a king
while you're in this room
you are the spring that conversation flows from
you have the thing most beautiful people desire
a line of the drug
that they do in the movies
in this far flung city
it's so hard to find
but you found it
in a friend from Argentina
now one might presume
that your home life is relatively awful
but one should never presume
well you gave her the house
and you moved into the rental
close to this bar and the firm you are a partner in, now
you mellowed out after the separation
yes you know the kids
much better than she does
you know that
Josh wants to be a sports commentator
and he's got your gift for the gab
Sarah wants to start her fashion label
and you've got the friends who can make it happen
everyone lined up in the courtyard
just after last call
to see you do your back flip trick on the bar
but this time you missed
and you fell on your ass
and when you tried it again you got
half a bottle lodged in your hand
and it made you remember
when you lived in London
and you were no one
no door would open
to a man from the colonies
of no money or standing
there was only the shoulder
of a guy from Argentina
but now the girl that he sent from Buenos Aires
had a heart attack on the plane
because the package dissolved
when it got inside her stomach
now there's nothing left to sell
in the hottest week of summer
and you've got an infection in your hand
so you're not immune to problems
but your kids are doing well
and you can pay more attention to the firm for a while
still you can tell some people infer
that your drinking in this bar
isn't just to do with your passion for life
but they're the same kinds of people
people who would assume
that you don't have a conscience left
when really you do
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7. |
Mt. Cargill
03:54
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On her credit card
he bought the cheapest running shoes from Kmart
and stripped to his underwear
at the bottom of Mt. Cargill
in the park where Leith Valley started
and shit he could run now
jumping rivers and overgrown paths
to the end of the tree line
where the tussock started
the city became silent
as if behind sound proof glass
he'd tell her
this was where the aliens left him
and half ashamed at his story
half beginning to believe it
this was how it usually started
he felt the blood reach his hands
as the sun rose straight out of the ocean
sometimes your life is an overwhelming vision
more compelling than any movie
sometimes there's music behind it
louder than a dam breaking
even if most of the time
it doesn't seem written right
you wonder why
you have nothing to show for your twenties
why you never lived overseas
why you spent more time drafting submissions
than writing scenes
why you can run Mt. Cargill but you
can't break out of this sleep
when he woke up
they'd taken his clothes
moved him to a city where the sun rose from the south
at first he thought it was Sydney
they gave him an apartment in a tower
money to live on
and the things he remembered
became art they could sell
and the false starts with lovers became one act plays
the memories of school led to breakthroughs in science
and from advice he'd been given
they built the new religion
sometimes your life is an overwhelming vision
more compelling than any movie
sometimes there's music behind it
louder than a dam breaking
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8. |
The Capital
04:07
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I know we've really lost you to the capital this time
though I loved to watch you swimming against the motorways
and they'll try to say the city is in transition
but you can't wait on that line
so just come out tonight
we can drown all the memories
between the sound of the traffic and the sea
some awful zombie film was playing on your laptop
you smelt of chlorine we were spilling gin on the couch
your ceiling about to give out
to the mould and the storm and I knew then
that would have been the moment
to bite your shoulders and hold on
I wouldn't have lasted long, you know
I never swim with my head right under
you want to believe in the water
in a town that can pull you back up
and in the capital
oh in the capital
I believe in the capital
they'll do that for you
on your famous balcony
we could see both oceans
the body of the population
and the motorway flowing
like a pulsing artery
you said imagine a giant knife cutting through it
the cars spurting straight up
now the sky is black like the end of a movie
the stars are dim
but you can read the credits
if you look closely
now stronger swimmers will move into these spaces
pay too much rent
make those mistakes
beneath the din of the sea and the motorway
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9. |
Dumpster Diving
03:50
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I'm already disheartened
with dumpster diving
I know we've hardly started
but I can't avoid feeling
I'm out of season
with your drive
to save watermelons from going to waste
and I knew you'd be the woman
who could carry me on her back
towards that noble goal I lack
but you're cutting such a
steep steep road
now we save the oceans
one email at a time
we pick the locks on supermarket dumpsters
and you fight old friends in the kitchen
over rotting convictions
you'd be better with someone to match your tattoos
someone whose parents couldn't inject that piety deep under the skin
my only guess
is I mean something bigger to you
and If I can be dragged along
maybe the world can too
but the world will never be as taken with you
and we didn't find vegetables in any of them
but you know that wasn't what we were looking for
you needed the security guard to show up
to shout a sermon from the dumpster
you just needed a man's stomach to punch
and it couldn't be me
had to be a guy with some scrap of authority
you're at your best when you're angry
just tonight I wish you'd turn it on me
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Anthonie Tonnon New Zealand
Anthonie Tonnon is a songwriter and performer based in Whanganui, New Zealand. In recent years, his work has focused on the immersive live shows, A Synthesized Universe and Rail Land. He has released two albums and three EPs, and is releasing the new album, Leave Love Out Of This in July. ... more
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