Michael Penn

Filibust and hesitate You say I procrastinate And that my heart beat's second rate To one you'll recognize I know that you are drawn to it So all I am is counterfeit It pulls you so you must submit Like ant to honeydew What once I took as remedies Are only c...

Now that we're alone; Trouble, baby, doesn't always come in threes. I had a hunch the fight was thrown, But what's it going to take to get me to my knees? It's a bad sign When I'm just marking time… A bad sign, Hoping will be fine. A bad sign. When I think th...

This one is a bad one It's no lie but that's not why I'm standing, dear I only want to whisper to your heart but I'm too smart for starting here... we get into that battle room we choose to get into the battle room in twos, we get into the battle room It doesn...

One more for the collection you've got on your wall paint it in the frame until you hire out a little stall and on a few, you've got to laugh as you inscribe his autograph... they are the ones that everybody chooses beautiful excuses Closing in on targets in a...

Without an invitation it used to be more fun surveillance through the dry bush you knew the art of ring and run and hid behind the t-bird unless the door would open first you had a talent for excuses... an innocent who'd been coerced you had to have it all reh...

Baby's busy hiding in the bassinet wonderin' if the third world war started yet I told her I was pulling up and heading west she said she would have come but she was overdressed so I sent a picture postcard of a midwest bank she wrote me that she showed it to...

it's a kind of parade it's a bucket brigade who got it off the wire that you'd set it and left just to cover the theft that would topple and empire but you wanted the world and it was only the heart... only the heart of a girl for everyone in the know he's go...

Always thought it was a game with us Move until enough's enough into a picture-perfect view I'd like to rip it up with you Why would anybody leave this place? It's overdrawn and won't erase And if you're feeling incomplete the line is stretching up the street...

Always been horseblinded Could never see Past the two shades on the periphery I ask you for mercy And beg clemency But something I'm feeling is sticking with me When you're all alone And I am not around I know that you think me As cold as the ground I don't p...

Who'd of ever thought to call that coal? If my hands were warm then I might I don't know I keep panning and in my reach it Hangs on Water falls down There's no gold in this barren town "Used to be a man could make his way with a barrel full of this black coal...

...And you want to impress That you love me more or less Which of us will be first To get off To get hurt When you come too close for comfort Come too close for comfort Much too close for comfort Too close for comfort And on line The acrobat Who has got his...

What could it be What would you bet I'm not too sure About anything yet 'Cause when you put all the love In the world on a chip It gives me the creeps And the Fortean Slip This revelation Disinformation Is a cover up You cover up A cover up I was abducted I s...

It's hiding in the corner of every sacred place before the ambush you won't want to recognize its face It slithers like a viper readies its attack tears your flesh and soul apart then clings on to your back But not till it turns away can you feel the pain of a...

I've heard people say they’ve come for miles To pay their due respects (for mileage, each expects). "A pillar of community and style". "At heart, a family man Who'd had a change of plan". Goodbye Sally, Simi Valley, Denton Road, The Roosevelt Hotel For my own...

Years away with foreign girls the bedlam boys took sand from pearls The tide went out the time was ripe it's so much more subtle to be the silent type and I'm in no mood to reunite if they came with her tonight The bedlam boys make some noise for me the bedlam...

I want you to keep a piece of me in there; right below your majesty I may tend to it with flattery or maybe I'll jump start counting on a battery what's right, unglue what's left, breakthrough brake up, brakedown let up, leave town oh fuck, got stuck you lose,...

"Here's the car you will be driving. Radio works. Take the 10 out. On arriving, detour other road. Where every sign's a carved design. stick feather on with glue and run amok upon the lawn" The sun comes up and it just dawned on me: one thing's clear the times...

If you wipe the slate let me start again from this moment on We've been through this before every single time that i thought you had gone Well I'm out of reserve I'm out of my wherewithal, but when the moment comes when I've got nothing left I find I've got it...

Leave it for a while; come back Leave it for a while; come back Leave it for a while; come back What would make a smile on you? Are you closing in? Come back Are you still believing what you read? Are you still believing every word? (That is what I heard) But...

In a little while I'll forget your name and with the time we had I will do the same 'cause I can't belong to any future the past's a never ending overture until it's only now no matter how I put my foot down I want to know my rank and I want my reward or I wil...

I won't ever get used to this A blank spot temptations do resist. The other shoe will drop just an aftershock Nice hat; you look like a referee Nice watch; but why are you timing me? Its spring has come unwound I was not out of bounds This is not out I drew th...

I don't care that you won't quit this notion of burying the carnival but what the hell is in your potion that's made you so dull? So I cannot make a blind from sawdust much less a cool millennium, but I'd much rather feel the heat of August than be sheltered a...

What a scene what a drama just to find the door that was mean that was totally uncalled for have you reached the point where you must choose between what you lost and what you stand to lose isn't it high time? Could it be that the future's going to turn out g...

Whatever news you had Whatever shoes you had Whatever made you mad enough On the promenade you can Give it a rest Give it a seat Or in the glass you can cut your feet Pop a knee Flesh torn And everything else seems A little worse for worn A simple thing, I ad...

Sweet Miranda brings me the wine We have had our fill of almost everything turning thistledown laughter I would take her blue cue too late I would say the words almost anything just to catch what she's after but you don't believe that I'm a partner in this gam...

She's there separating orange from rind and i sit at her station every time so what ever happened to common courtesy now one in a million seems one more than me i don't mind just watching her parading for customers but everybody bayed as i slowly fade i go inv...

I shook upon a bridge On a fault on the north ridge Where I placed a picture of you on my Etch-A-Sketch I give you now the river And it is too a river though You may not know That it is so And I do not suspect It's the kind that you'd expect In this respect I...

Oh man, look what the cat drug in It's got the dress, tho the color's gone that I gave my one true love on Oh man, look what the wind blew home Never had this much stimulation since her low down elevation, but Oh, don't look in those eyes bluer than blue her r...

I'm sending out a call to arms from the cities to the farms to the sounding of alarms with all the bells and whistles took my prize, hung my plaque pat our big collective back and then got drunk on crackerjack and e-mailed my epistle I must be the lucky one th...

Hold my head up, Turn around Mary Lynn. Hold my head up, Turn around Mary Lynn. And if you'd only stay the night You’d see it's not so Black and white. And on a hard day Put your cares away And pray. 

The fire that this town can see Is me alight in effigy I suppose baby don't want me around She threw my stuff into a pit And laughed aloud as I dove after it I suppose baby don't want me around Is this the place you want to be? Out of the woods Out of control...

So, she says it's time she goes but wanted to be sure I know she hopes we can be friends I think, yeah, I guess we can say I but didn't think to ask her why she blocked her eyes and drew the curtains with knots I've got yet to untie what if I were Romeo in bl...

Never been to Mexico It's only half a mile or so the mission on the bluff, below Don't get out much Crow tastes like chicken meat And I've heard cats land on their feet If that's a lie I want you to delete it Was mystified Took a Greyhound for a ride And by A...

Baby calm down. Baby come back down to the ground. Let me hold you; Let me hold this moment a spell. I can tell That there's really not a lot of options open For another kind of aftermath. You're hoping that there's something else that you can do to Make it c...

I'm on automatic And you gotta flip the switch. Baby there's a box in the attic But I couldn't tell you which was which. It's all become a running joke. I'm what you might call simple folk. But everything’ll turn out fine. Things are looking up. In the meanti...

Bombs bursting in air Hazy from rocket's red glare All on your own On your way anywhere Love, just in case you've not heard It's been run ragged, a ghost of a word But hope kind of stuck And with any luck Maybe next summer, maybe by fall Well, if no...

That's the way it goes you're going to have to see it through eventually listen, I propose that everybody show some sort of sympathy 'cause all the highs and lows are really wearing out its elasticity there's no bouncing back no recovery put it out of its mis...

I feel like I'm coming down with it All of the symptoms fit And I backslide An eye on the clock I don't talk much When I'm running On the inside When every conclusion reached Is out to you I put on my best face and my kid gloves, too And held up the end Until...

You don't have to pay for any more Of what I'm selling door to door! I will demonstrate for free... But each opportunity... Always ends in an apology... From the cue card that you read, Tell me what you think I need While you're burying the lead And showing m...

First she's going to relocate it to the southland stake her claim in Silverlake what she's showing off will be on your account there's little doubt she's stealing what she confiscates chalking it all up to fate that is why she always waits for the perfect cand...

Let's say that was then. Here we go again. All our friends are filling the room. It's like a play, And the words that I'll say Are not for you. They're for that costume. Giving you hope That when they pull the rope It's on a happy ending. But baby, I'm pretend...

We took the crowd, You were drunk and I was loud. We pulled a fast one zigzagging around. Made our way To a table straight away. And if you’re able… Baby, bet everything. You're going to lose But believe it or not you’ll be highly amused 'Cause what's it wor...

I loved a girl once beyond compare She saw inside me and gave me air She was assisting my surgery My heart was opened as she put a mask on me I'm breathing but it's become a chore "Now that you've seen the doctor don't call me anymore" I was impatient I was n...

I want to you understand That I want you And I want you The way I do and I want you to want to have it done to you I'm so selfish I am so selfish I am so selfish I'm absorbed I am absolved It's best that you don't get involved It is not conscious, be assured...

Rats in my jacket I'm so impressed I am now seen unclean Wash me up mama and give me a suit of gabardine I had a suit, by the look on my face, maybe it's plain to see that that never stopped what was troubling me like once, it was Monday out. And dry? Man, it...

Picture this, a small black box To open it, unlock the locks As I dissect in retrospect this scene You turned it on like a machine A mechanizing go-between The clock-to-China figurine I do crash With everybody on the ground In pieces, coming down If we do cr...

This story is past tense and I did not want my cover blown Thought well enough was left alone and who decided you'd rescue me? Yeah, I do agree a bent and broken set are we Up in a tree we're stuck and the only lights off the wire are all the moths in the fir...

Well you cut me to the quick With some kind of abandon And I'm pouring over every word in my mind And it isn't making sense 'Cause it's coming back at random And I already forgot what I expected to find So maybe it's the wrong game I shut down the repl...

When you're on a high with no telling how you got there I might catch your eye from a world beneath you How do you? Don't you recognize what you are leaving? Let me introduce what you've just seen a trampoline and it's dropping out of view trampoline until gr...

I picked up that something of it I could still try to make Then watch me blink and overlook What I undertake 'Til I don't try I don't try and I don't want to try to anymore I would choose to accuse you Strike the fire Issue a decree Ask you why Watch you take...

I count the cases piled up high For the 1:15. For platform and for passerby It's the same routine. I'm ranting while I’m raving, There's nothing here worth saving. Tell me now, what more do you need? Take me to Walter Reed tonight. Baby I've lost the will for...

Monday seventeen degrees the shadows disappear all around you dear until it's loud and clear isn't it the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth so help me the whole truth nothing but the truth so help me God I'm the bad guy waiting in the wings and the...

Every eye will go to you. You do not have a doubt. 'Cause baby, these appearances Are what it's all about. And if I told you how that looks You'd say I've got a nerve… Just another particle That we can all observe As you trot it out. You know how. You trot it...