Winter came hard, she came harder pulled my heart out on a thread sewed my scars and took it farther, she stitched her picture all across my head We slept clean on Charlotte Street, settled in my broken bed She said “I may not be back when August ends...” Summer showed I kept callous she said “Alex, breathe.” Burnin’ slow all that we can salvage I said “fold the borders and throw me in between!” I’s weak-knee’d on Charlotte Street, I was kneelin at my lonely bed sayin’ “I may not be back when August ends.” Pulled my boots ‘n I soaked my bourbon Oh, I smoked my third one of the night heard from you, it was postmarked Austin You don’t know what you’re costin’ my mind Harmonize my memory, I hear her in every breath, sayin' "I may not be back when August ends" Sky split slow an it stole my thunder/ This weather I’m under ain’t gettin’ warm I said "No, I wasn’t born to wonder, an' I’ve wasted every lover since I was born." Sky's bleedin' leaves over Charlotte Street, baby I'm burnin' this empty bed, No I'm not goin' back, and I'll let August end.

She was up late lookin’ for a Northern Cross I had achin’ hands, I held a tattoo’d scar and an address full of ampersands and rough-cut arms and lavender and lilacs under strangled stars I sell the sunrise, I sleep bizarre, I break the constellations in our suitcase hearts keep the calendars, keep the clocks, keep the histories repeating and the past post-marked and give us Time in the same hemisphere and Time less flawed She was up late waitin’ for her dreams to dawn, yeah she’s anything but mistaken that she’s takin’ too long with her folded-feather memories, his Cezanne songs yeah her eyes are missin’ autumn leaves, her wrists are missin’ fall so it’s Cedar bracelets when she gets back, it’s a Latin Atlas and a borderless map I said “keep the calendars and keep the cards, keep the histories repeating and the past postmarked and give us Time in the same Hemisphere and Time Less Flawed” Swallow Cedars in the silence save the north where you were born pay your sober debt to solitude & a soul to stay forlorn carve the walls out from our country flood the border forgive the storm curse the callous on this history and these broken oaken doors you can sell the sunrise, and sleep bizarre, go and break the constellations in my suitcase heart, curse the calendars, curse the clocks, curse the currents in my arteries & the headwinds in my vox and give us Time in The Same Hemisphere and Time Less Flawed I have wasted all my daylight, I have sidestepped every waltz I’ve outdistanced every honestly amnesic needless fault so make her lips to kiss the dateline, lay her ribs on Capricorn, those hips they curve like Cancer on the mornin’ God was born you can sell the sunrise, go sleep bizarre, break the constellations in our suitcase hearts you can hang the calendars, unwind every clock, I been drownin’ all my borders, nailed my passport to the Southern Cross, said “Finally, I’m in your Hemisphere, and I’m less flawed.”

I will burn my back til my red hands crack, I will wake up before dawn let the angels moan, and I’ll make my home, where your rusted bones belong burn the midwest nights, burn the lost lake eyes, burn the Madison Mornin’ songs where the road don’t move I can wait for you I can send your blues back home Highway 101 we can save your sons we can break your guns and graves it’s the high tide reach, it’s your turquoise teeth, how the pearls you sleep with taste I gave all my love to your brother's drugs and your mother’s worthless faith you’re my blood stained kin, you’re my half-dead hymn, you’re my sin that I can’t save Let my prayers swing low like a Salvation Rose let my wanderin’ toes find thee Let the lithium doses and the red Ponderosas sing like a cedar scream you’re the nightmare caught you’re the colt unlocked, you’re the last thought before I sleep we’ll be callused and cold we’ll be salvaged and sold we’ll be there when God learns to bleed and the orchard’s full of fireblight and my back’s been sore since spring and I worked from dawn to midnight and I still ain’t worth a thing and your stone soul’s my religion I was baptized in your eyes and I cursed all our divisions, tore this mountain and ripped this tide I wake up and RoseMarie’s dead and you shaved my head and you’ve stolen all my songs my home’s burned down I didn’t make it out, I just screamed your name til dawn when the flames took me, I felt your cancer creep and my ghost will have no haunt, I’ll be locked and barred, I’ll be locked and barred, I’ll be locked and barred so break these land-locked arms and tattoo your scars on me, Josephine

Carve the Cascaseds from the same small sky, Frame it all in Cedar, He'll be awake when the telephone rings, He'll be there to meet her. Cover the ashes like your sister's smile, Frame the fall in shade Rose Marie, Rose Marie, Rose Marie sings, "all my debts have been paid." Blacken the piano strings, waltz me for miles love the line for the leader Blackberry border, the sweetness, the sting lay my body beneath hers Hide us in the lilacs, let stars fill the silo Honey let’s all stay late Leave your religion like you left Abilene, Leave your grey guns by the gate Throw away the thimbles, and throw away the signs we were born believers grow our golden roses & hold our dreams kiss your close-eyed sleepers RoseMarie, RoseMarie, Rose Marie sings "all my debts have been paid, Shine the summer sunsets, an' shine the piano strings Lay me down in the shade... Lay me down in the shade!"

Southern Mouth I hear messages from God in my radio static, letters from you growin' mold in the attic, hardwood floors and dust in my lungs, and feelin’ anything but 24 years young; We tried to love like my parents, ended like yours- regard these lines in our faces like wasted shores; we dug love from the cracks of our salt-choked skin, distilled our own nostalgia-infused gin, Southern Mouth. Last I heard from God, he lost his dick in the war, contracted Clap in a taxi from an Illinois whore; he’s in a hospital in Paris, shootin’ morphine on the floor with a nurse with a name that sounds just like yours. So if you hear me in Texas where the barb-wire sings, where the girls drink whiskey, and the boys gasoline, turn your blue eyes to Market, turn your clock back an hour, give your love to the loneliest man left in Ballard, Southern Mouth. I heard the message you left in my radio static and then I dug all your letters outta the attic I tore up the hardwood, slept on the dirt we never got better just a different kind of worse Southern Mouth.