Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Conor Oberst May 2012
You turn on a spindle
You're so much looser now, but you're not explaining how you gained such new repose
I touch the clasp of your locket with its picture held
Some secret you wouldn't tell but let it choke your neck
So we imagine a darkness where all shapes divide;
solids changing into light with burst of heat so bright
Well fine, don't you do what I want you to
Yeah, don't degrade yourself the way I do
because you don't depend upon all the **** I use to make my moods improve
Near a sea of pianos there were waves of chords
that crashed against the shore in one huge and useless roar
and there were girls bringing water;
like a dream, they came to cure the fever of my brain
and soothe my burning throat
And they made me a necklace, hanging beads of sweat on a string of my regrets
and placed it around my neck
And they were singing, don't you do what you wanted to
Yeah, don't destroy yourself like those cowards do
Maybe the sun keeps coming up because it's gotten used to you
and your constant need for proof
Conor Oberst May 2012
In the morning
when you throw up water
and your skin turns a pale pale yellow
Well everyday you lose more color
Do you think that someone paints your mirror?
So you think that things sound different
at the time when you speak
Well there are visions much clearer than these blurs that you see
and like Neely O'Hara, you swallow your sleep
and wake up in the morning
to find out you are not who you used to be
You don't recognize the behavior
or the spelling of your name or the shape that is in the mirror
Well you'd swear it is not the same
and like Neely O'Hara
you swallow your sleep and you really can't remember
but you know you are not
(think you are not)
No, you are not who you used to be
Conor Oberst Apr 2012
If you could change your days
Arranging them in some sweet new sequence
like any new arrangement is going to make a difference
because it is the moment that you are living in
and not the one that follows that makes the mess you are cleaning in your head
And time still drags you forward
although you keep resisting
because you know it is what  you leave behind
you will soon start missing, and the people you once counted on
say it's all depending on how you act and how you treat yourself
and that is not very well
So Baby when I call for you
I want you to come and explain yourself to everyone
You nod in an acknowledgment of your frequent mood swings
But what good is acknowledgment?
It still don't change things
We've tried all forms of encouragement
and it's still no better
You can't seem to fake or force a smile
Not even a little one
So Baby, when I call for you I want you to come
and lay it out for everyone
exactly how it was before any of this happened
and why you can't leave it behind
Don't just sit there when I call to you
I told you to come and lay it out for...
Don't feel awkward
Lay it out for everyone
Conor Oberst Apr 2012
There is a car parked where the block begins
and there are people singing praises
Say it's all because of him
And there is a bird perched on a frayed wet wire
and his voice sings out for a lover
but it's covered by the choir of voices
reaching way beyond the rafters
With devotion they perform these sacred tasks
They cross themselves and offer up their checkbooks
Slight suffering is not too much to ask
Besides, we are all making money
and we are all ******* alone
and we don't know what we are doing
Maybe just buying us some hope
because we know that we are lonely
Yeah, lonely that's for sure
And the older ones are coughing
And the older ones are dying
Maybe we are all dying
I pass a graveyard on my way to work
Today I saw two dozen white roses
on a fresh new mound of dirt
and I wondered about the occupant
When the darkness finally swallowed him was he calm and content
or was he sweating in a struggle to keep breathing,
ripping apart the sheets that dressed his bed,
crying out loud for someone to help him
and collapsing on his back all pale and dead?
Maybe it's me who's this unstable,
always obsessed about the end
Why can't I let what happens happen
and just enjoy the time I spend?
Oh how I wish it was so easy
but when there is no point to anything it can get a bit confusing
Why is it that I keep going?
Why is it that we keep going?
Conor Oberst Apr 2012
Sitting around, no work today
Try pacing to keep awake
Laying around, no school today
Just drink until the clock has circled all the way
It is late afternoon
as you walk through the rooms
of a house that is quiet
except for unanswered telephones
You stand near the sink
while you're mixing a drink
You think you don't want to pass out
where your roommates will find you again
Stumble around the neighborhood with nothing to do
You're always looking for something
to sniff, to smoke, or swallow
Calling over next door to see what they got
but you would settle for anything
that would make your brain slow down or stop
Break this circle of thoughts you chase
before they catch up back with you
and your parents noticed your thinning face
all the weight you lost
You said, "I'm done feeling like a skeleton,
no more sleep walking dead."
You're going to wake from this coma
You're going to crawl from this bed you have made
and stop counting on that camera
that hangs around your neck
because it won't ever remember
what you choose to forget
as you try to find some source of light
Try to name one thing you like
You used to have such a longer list
and light you never had to look for it
But now it's so easy to second guess everything you do
until all you want is to finish this half-empty glass
before the ice melts away
The feeling always used to pass
but seems like it's everyday
Seems like it's every night now
Conor Oberst Apr 2012
Let's sail away past the noise of the bay
Let's sail away past the birth and death of the day
Let's sail away to where the blues and greens swirl into grey
Let's sail away
Let's sail away past the cradle of these waves
Let's sail away past the tide and its slow decay
Let's sail away to where the water goes, some endless open space
Let's sail away
Take only what you need, my love, and leave the rest behind
Don't be afraid of where we'll go, my love
I promise you will be fine
Now you are the only one that's mine
Let's sail away past the reflections of the light
Let's sail away floating weightless through the night
Let's sail away like a photograph fading to all white
It's finally alright
Forget all the mistakes, my love
They won't be made again
Leave the photos in the drawer, my love
We no longer need them
We both know where we've been
Let's sail away disappearing in a mist
Let's sail away with a whisper and a kiss
or vanish from a road somewhere, like Tereza and Tomas
suspended in this bliss
Conor Oberst Apr 2012
The language in the dimmer rooms seems to represent its light source well
How soft they speak and seem to be at peace
with the movement of the music and the madness that is pulling me into this
And the shades of the lamps are woven red
The light, it stains and consecrates
anointing all forgotten forms that swirl and smoke
and haunt this place
The girls in gowns all nurse the dark
pulling it near to their swelling *******
and watch as it seeps to their hearts
and beats within their ****** chests
And here I know that seduction breeds from wanton hearts that would
****** and grows and spreads its vine
and leaves embracing those who might have moved
But now we're made to drink the night from vials black and thick
with such intoxicating delights would leave you drunk
inside this dream
And you watch them take the light from you
and you find yourself on a velvet couch
tasting the skin of a foreign girl
Her eyes are black and wet like oil
and she ties your hands with a string of pearls
and you tremble like a frightened bird
And she closes in and captures you to place you
in a silver cage deep within her poisoned womb
So once you're safe inside she might let you out
to fly in circles around the room,
but it's always night and there is no moon
and you wonder if you're alive
and you're not sure if you want to be
but you drink her sweat like it was wine
any you lay with her on a bed of blue and it's awful sweet
like the fruit she cuts and feeds to you
Next page