Made the Change

got myself a ticket home
goin back to the place i was born
goin home to where i'm from
family waiting at the shore
gonna wait for me in lac la ronge
then we go back
to where we're from
haven't been there in a long time
gonna see things that'll make me smile
gonna see things i haven't see in a while
just wanna get out back on the land
see the water where it mirrors the sky
just wanna see the same things again
i'm sailing home
the bus wheels whine
it seems the cry
the city left in goodbye
took my transfer at prince albert
all the way from saskatoon
said goodbye to all the friends there
some family maybe too
nothin left there for me to do
got my possessions here with me
in the seat sitting here
i can see the land go by
the sky that same eternal blue
soon i'll be home too
the trees i see are the ones i've seen
when i've taken this road before
the green of their boughs waves playfully
as we rush past effortlessly
today i am happy
today i am going home
leavin saskatoon
nothing left for me to do there
only sit at the apartment walls and stare
as i see my shadow dance across the wall
sun's playin games
sweet smell of the country
sweet smile of the sunshine
going back home
going back to a place i though i'd never see again
and thought i'd never be again
but i was wrong
'cause here i am
smilin as i know we aren't too far away
from the place i like to call home
back to lac la ronge
so much here will be the same
encapsulated in my head
laid to rest 'til i came back
just so
i will see the changes that have come and gone
but that's the same with all the world
'cause nothin really changes
only you do, and you see them a different way
but nothin's really different
you made the change

Suicide

White on white and blue on blue.
I can see the sky from here.
I think of you.
Gone are the days when you were here,
my heart begs for you to come back.
I think of times passed,
and memories elapsed.
I long for you,
sun sitting on the surface of the sky.
Please come back.
Everyone waits for you.
Sadness in the eyes of those who you left,
loneliness in those who never said goodbye.
You can't fill the emptiness with sorrow,
it'll be gone tomorrow.
Eat you up inside,
there's blood on the riverside.
Black water locked in heavy ice,
gone 'til the break-up;
come back before it breaks.
Clouds stretching themselves before a long journey,
no wind to push them onwards.
Soon no-one will be here to see for you,
they'll all have forgotten you.
Don't go,
please come back.
Eat you up inside,
there's blood on the riverside.
Snowflakes perform pirroets and tumble down,
lying porcelain
on the undisturbed white canvas of snow.
Empty blue,
eyes looking out into the next world.
If you look hard enough you can see where you went.
Maybe if we look harder,
maybe if we search a little longer,
maybe if we pray a little better,
we can bring you back.
What made you go,
we'll never know.
Please don't go,
we need to know,
what's making you leave us so.
You can't be leaving yet,
we need you to tell us
where you went.
How can we find you
before
it's too late.
Why did you have to go?
Go away, away, away.
Eat you up inside;
call somebody quick, there's blood on the riverside
I can see
your
shadow.
On the snow on the riverbank.
I hear the rush of the river.
I hear of it's soulful whisper.
I hear the gunshot cracking in the morning air.
Where, where, where
did you go?
Where can we look?
Can you come home?
It'd be suicide to think you can bring back a man who died....

Lie

and then you really might know what it's like
cuz i think that you been thinking what you know is right
but i think you realize it ain't alright
cuz how can you see these things at the end of the night?
i can't see but i been thinkin'
that you don't know what you been doin'
cuz how can you see what you haven't been understandin'?
where is the love
where is the thing that you thought you had to lose?
where did it go?
where has it been?
lies won't stop
cries won't stop
you need to fix all this and make it stop
cuz it won't end 'til you're gonna drop
singin' and dancin' and tellin' your song
cuz you've never understood how this did you wrong
how couldn't you see things all along
there isn't much too see the way things have gone
how can you rest when so much must be done?
i bet you coulda found a better way
one with benefits and vacation pay
a way to make life fun today
but i think you and i know why you chose this way
driving down the highway at a quarter to five
just tryna think about keeping it alive
what's there to do when all you've done is lie?

banjo and fiddle

banjo and a fiddle were dancin' down the road
off to alabama
and the appalachias
they belong in the south
down in the deep south
banjo and fiddle goin' off to kentucky
goin' off to arkansas
goin' off to a hoe down tonight
strings of steel and bows of birch
runnin' down roads of rich red dirt
and they're goin'
we're goin' to a hoe down tonight
crisp little stars in the cold moonlight
wicked little wind blowin' down the highways alright
we're goin' to a hoe down tonight
sounds and songs of a happy family
as we pass through the land of kentucky
inside the ways of appalachia
on to arkansas, louisiana and maybe on through alabama,
over to the virginias and missouri too
all through the south, singin' songs
banjo and a fiddle dancin' down the road
we're goin' to a hoe down tonight
oh muddy water
wash all my sins away
jesus in the sky keep me in your heart til it's my time to die
oh muddy water
wash all my sins away
keep me safe today
as we sing and dance this way
we're goin' down to a hoe down tonight
off we go in the bright moonlight
enjoy the dancin' sky in the night
and the good things we're gonna do this night
banjo and a fiddle runnin' down the road
singin' and playin' and laughin' and smilin'
goin' through every single southern town
'cause we're going to a hoe down
i've lived my life the way i was told
and watched as i been gettin' old
and seen the way the world's been sold
and come to know what's really gold
as we sit and watch the land get sold
and wonder how we can find what's truly gold
and i know in my heart of hearts
what's true and what's a poison dart
'cause i seen whats good and what's just dirt
and understood for what it's really worth
maybe that's why i'm goin' down
goin' down to this hoe down
banjo and a fiddle dancin' down the road
'cause they know whats really right
and how we should be spendin' our time tonight
as i drive like wildfire in the cold moonlight
oh muddy water
wash all my sins away
oh jesus, why don'tcha watch over me today
keep me from goin' astray
'cause i know that i shouldn't go away
so listen to the whisperin' wind
'cause it sounds like a big storm blowin' in

An Ode to the Episode of C.F.

and every new and shining day
we take the path we hope will lead us to a better way
a better way where we can stay
a place we'd like to stay someday
to keep us with our better ways and keep the pain away
cuz all you got to lose is what you gained today
something to help you think before you go astray
the ways in which your people helped and guided you to say
don't you wanna stop and keep us all and make a big display?
with all your screwed up foreplay
and things that you really meant to be the other way
what more have i to say?
you ruined it you took your chance
you made sure we couldn't fix this trance
something to think about when you see what's really gone askance
the world rocking on its hinges like a door askew
as you realized just what you've come to do
life taking your mind in the paces you've been through
the ways in which you'll never understand exactly what they do
making your path up from the underworld
a journey from the unknown
as you can watch what you have blown
god on your side or maybe on the ones you have dethroned
think about it before everything is gone
something you shoulda understood fore what you did was said and done
now didn't you really have so much fun?
those family that you've put on the run?
do they really want to invest in someone full of rum
making their own lives hellish as they watch you perish
my god you must think you're special to make somethin incredible
that can make us all turn so unintelligible
wait til the light's gone off and you're uneligible
they'll be watchin your path as you grace unremarkable
the brains cells dyin as your eyes lose their sparkle
coming from a place where the descent's matriarchal
the weight of your world faced by others who made it more than partial
as you sit and you wink with the think in your drink
and watch these globs of slick black ink
killing itself off with the drink
everything gone in the time of a blink
something to be said as the world begins to shrink
everything is gone with the length of a song
didn't really take that long
just keep goin along
with those you belong
and soon before you can realize what has come to pass
and wish that you could surpass
but my god won't you be living in the past?
cuz it's gonna come and get you before you can make the pass
and dive back into the things you thought you hid in the grass
maybe your kid will dig up your needles, your pills or your powder
lay it out on the floor so perfect
with the simple look of a child so innocent
that you can't help to corrupt with a mind so undiligent
cut the crap and clean up your act
cuz you've still got the life in your muscles to react
just get up off your ass and hope the edge where you're walking hasn't cracked.

cake

bought myself a rifle and a batch of johnny cake
gonna take it to my aunt next morning at just past eight
gonna take it by her house sittin there by the lake
i bought the thing cause i don't know how to bake
can handle a pan or pan a handle
but i know how to shoot a grouse or a nice heavy goose
somethin that i don't hafta guess
but i think i'll stay away from that johnny cake

wabaseemoong

highway 17 does go
through kenora and keewatin
a land of ancient bliss
greening forest hidden by the mist
take the highway 17A
to pass it by
take it west to get to manitoba
or go the east and get to thunder bay
nothing much to see in here and there
just lakes and things grow there
winding highway
where did i take you wrong?
where did i miss the turn off to wikwemikong?
i must be pretty lost, cause the sign says i'm in wabaseemoong
oh where did i go wrong?