Sea Change

Music by Damon Waitkus

Rare Weather (instrumental)

Music by Damon Waitkus

I Watch The Planes

Music and lyrics by Damon Waitkus

Lyrics

Come in, sit with me for a while and watch the dusk,
I’ll put this thing on mute.
It gives a view and lays a claim
on life that’s harder and harder to dispute.
Sometimes I open up the blinds
and put the set to rest
so I can watch those evening stars
descending in the West.

Haven’t you played long enough by now?
Every town bends or breaks in the same gale.
It didn’t take me thirty years to discover that, you know,
and I didn’t have to read a lot of fairy tales.
You’re not going to find a river that runs any wider
than the first your little eyes gazed across,
and you can’t help but drag your feet,
doff your hat and turn around once you see the sea
and realize your loss.

Your mother is a holy, selfish princess
always trying to get something from me.
Your father is a lazy furtive gawker.
You wonder why he’s aged so rapidly?

Two plagues are issuing through this country’s veins
although it hasn’t fallen yet.
I can see them both from this armchair, can’t I:
The TV and jumbo jet. And neither you
or your dreamy parents have any sense that something’s dead.
You’d give away the apple in your pocket
just to gain the tree in your head.

You can’t know strength through aspiration,
you simply do what must be done.
I served filets on silver trays–
I never thought of having fun.
I carried stretchers for the navy,
I buried bodies in the ground,
I kneaded bulky rolls at midnight–
I never thought of leaving town.

And when you start to lose your grip on things,
take down your tools from the shelf.
There is no future in an old age
of telling stories to yourself.