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Poor Homeless Soul

by lewis knudsen

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1.
Hold still I'm trying to draw you don't look until it's done you've changed even in the few minutes since we began I've decided to go with it cause I've been putting it off when it just needs to get done but even in your pose so still you've changed since we began Take a guess at the number of candies contained in this blurry glass jar if you guess it you will win the entire contents and the contest is the same with me here I am tell me that you know how many years remain in this glass jar if you tell me that you know you win every year within Someone said or wrote that by the time you're 24 you put your foot down for the rest of you life on the side that you just happened upon like a point of no return but if I change my clothes and change my mind on where I go who knows I might be changed in what I know Til the sleeping bag of stars is rolled up Once I turned in all my papers and got my grades online now that I've singled myself out by getting in line now that I've proved I'm pretty good at keeping myself alive it's time to speak up when they ask me how I plan to survive Whatchya gonna do you ask let me tell you what my plans are I'm gonna work a full workday, then eat sleep and play and use my major to get through the day and when the heavy words and pictures from here and there crawl into my backpack when I am unaware would you listen to me so that I can get to sleep Why did the other guys in the foxhole die and I'm the only one the shrapnel left alive what did I do to stay alive I did nothing but sit stunned and hear my pounding heart go on booster shots don't deflect and hot lead flies on the road ahead but only foolish people live like they're never gonna die On a dusky drive close to the river the streetlight gave away a swarm of mayflies eating, drinking, being merry in mid-air that was just last week and now, I'm in the exact same place and found that each and every one of them has dropped dead to the ground Ephemeroptera light a path for my feet Mayfly, one-day fly show me how I ought to be When he cut himself, on his sharp, sharp wit I stared at the open wound, no blood came out of it the changeless man his veins are filled with scabs last bus on the route just left so it's a long time to wait or a long way to go keep walking and keep waiting it will come I've not walked long enough I've not waited long enough
2.
Water 07:28
water goes down to the lowest place water goes down to the lowest place and I want the water to come to me yeah I want the water to come to me As the carving so the carver as the hunger so the starver as the craved one so the luster as the forgiver so the sinner I search for an empty quiet place I search for an empty quiet place but the desert will never come to me no the desert will never come to me As the remembered one so the recaller as the deserted one so the forsaker as the blood and body so the partaker as the cause of injury, so is the healer the sugar you accepted, the medicine you fought but it was medicine that brought you what the sugar forgot and in the wind and rain I can recall what in the cool summer days I forgot a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down but when you're only taking sugar then your fever won't go down unless you drink it all up unless you drink it down down down He strips away the pretty part he finds the seed and dries it out he puts in near the fire for a while and it really hurts he lets it sit, he grinds it up he pours scalding water over it but even this is not enough unless he pours it in a cup oh even this is not enough unless he drinks it down and up Blood is flowing through my body don't run me over just don't run me over it's not too much to ask Breath is flowing through my body oh can't you see it oh can't you see it when it's cold out when it's cold out How am I to live in weakness? How am I to live in loneliness? Oh these overwhelming deaths I die and yet I live Water goes down to the lowest place And I want the water to come to me
3.
With Nothing 06:14
You had seen me when the water burst you will see me down below the earth and having seen me at my very worst are you ready to love me? You have seen me at my most perverse you have heard my every whispered curse so having seen and heard my very worst are you ready to love me? You have seen me at my very worst at my very very very worst so having seen me at my very worst are you ready to love me? Are you really gonna take me as I am with nothing with nothing X2 Are you really gonna take me as I am? X4 Do you think that you could really love me after all of this adultery I never thought to ask before and now I am afraid My trembling beyond control nothing between your eyes and my soul but if it is as I fear should I not already be dead If I ever wanted to be loved If I ever wanted to be loved If I ever wanted to be loved If I ever wanted to be loved If I ever wanted to be loved If I ever wanted to be loved it's right now
4.
Regret 07:23
The clothes you use to show your favorite side of you are meant to get you to a place where you have to throw them out and start over then you are as you really are in a bad way and in need You are at the show you know who will be there and you are wearing clothes for those who will be there the glow upon your face now that you are here shows its not about the music anymore and you are in need when you please me I am happy when you wound me I get angry and confused but I am yours and I am hurtable to you if you please me I will rest and if you hurt me I will drink it like the medicine it is as I wait Just push play the mental break I needed all day this time I know I'll absorb every single note but halfway through the maze my brain's been going through I missed it all again and I am in need If you don't stop wearing your clothes in the shower you're never gonna get clean and if you don't stop saying sorry knife in hand you're never gonna come clean Now my heart it is a farmer it makes one thing out of two so please me as you please and wound me as you wound but I will always be yours so loveable so hurtable to you and for you I wait Rifles reversed map upside down we go back the way we came rifles reversed map upside down we go back the way we came rifles pointing back at me Whether you want me or send me away I'll be there right by your side like a good friend always stays I'll help you when you're hurt but when you're fine I'll mess you up I am I am And when you're in a nasty mood well I can play that game with you but I'll always do what helps you, yeah, I know it hurts me too and I'll help you when you're hurt but when you're fine I'll mess you up I am I am I am your regret oh have we formally met I guarantee you'll get to know me better even if you hadn't planned on it When you're hurt I'll keep you safe but when you're fine I'll hold a knife up to your very very bad little neck For you to make a way for me I wait, I wait for you to make a way for me I wait, I wait X2
5.
Plans 06:46
You make your plans you make your plans I highly doubt there's ever been one brand new mother who looked at her brand new son and thought one day he will have no place to call his own he'll sing for pity money on the street the public concrete propery will always contain his feet A life he swears off every day but nighttime comes and it's as if he doesn't have much say-ay-ay Oh no job no home no money nowhere to go and I'd be happy to go to work for the man if he'll hire someone with a past and overlook my scarlet history and hire me as who I'm supposed to be Well I earned my paycheck honestly and this man and his wife came up to me the two of them were about to be three but they were on the street he said to me "can you help us get on the train" so I gave them a part of a previous day and I started heading for the train I looked behind me and I thought it was in faith but too late and saw them walking off the other way-ay-ay How much more money can I give to the poor when it only ends up in the hands of those who have them in a stranglehold Love, you fool if I told you gullible was written on the ceiling you would look wouldn't you and you'd look at me and I would be the fool you'd look at me and I would be the fool Why are you giving me water when I live inside the sea oh why are you giving me fire when I live up in a tree X2 Don't look down on the homeless one day you may be homeless too Jesus callin' on the main line you better tell him what you want
6.
I shuffled through this past year's Christmas cards I found a picture of a man I used to know in a very short time he went from sixty to zero his legs turned to wheels and his body to a shell and I've scolded myself cause I could not feel my way through the dark of a funeral home tears only fall on a bottomless floor while I grieve dry-eyed by the tomb oh oh oh And I'm an old beggar who smells like two weeks no one gets close so mostly I sleep I'm just now waking up and I need something to eat if I move closer to you will you promise to move closer to me oh oh oh Last week I used your money on the cheapest quickest ride down that old river I know so well just one more time to forget my murders and my lies drag me out, wait, no don't drag me out Watch me get right on that bus and go back where I'm from See this gash on the side of my face, going back to where they know what it's from And you wouldn't want to guess the places I've been thrown now I know you are young and you've got problems of your own but just look at me and tell me could I sink to any lower place I know I don't deserve it but could you please put me on the train oh oh oh And when he has finished with everyone he will say unto them you too come forth come forth my drunk ones my weak ones my shameless ones my pacific garden mission ones my thanksgiving soup kitchen my took five bucks and instead of buying food you bought cheap whiskey ones and we will all come forth X4 Without being ashamed and stand there and he will say swine you are of the image of the beast and of his seal but come you too and the wise and the reasonable will say unto him Lord, why do you accept such as these and he will say I receive my wise and reasonable ones forasmuch as not one of them considered himself worthy of this thing And he will stretch out his arms to us and we will fall at his feet and we will understand everything And he will stretch out his arms to us and we will fall and we will weep and we will understand everything Blessed are the poor for they shall see God X2
7.
Technology 05:32
Once there was a redbud tree who wanted to grow up to be an oak tree but his mom and dad gently told him redbud trees do not grow to be oak trees you have to be a redbud tree Then he thought he would be willing to be cut down in order to be chopped up and made something to write on to hold some printed words the ones that turn the world but the mill thought it not practical they left him all alone to grow I could earn my PHD or I could pack up and join the marines I could backpack overseas I could even do nothing at all I could climb Mount Everest okay maybe not, maybe not but it still seems like there are lots of things I could do I just don't know what to do And if you were like the economy then you could not admire me for in me is no practicality my arms just go out to you my life is your technology and I know what I must do Where I go and what I do you can do, and undo after I'm undone by you I will be all new

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released August 2, 2008

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lewis knudsen Rock Island, Illinois

Lewis Knudsen is a mixed-genre, multi-instrumentalist songwriter based in Rock Island, IL (Quad Cities).

In 2018 Lewis wrote and released a new song each week, while touring regionally in the midwest, and is currently working on plans for a new album in 2020
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