Paradigm lyrics - Ani Difranco

I was born to two immigrants
Who knew why they were here
They were happy to pay taxes
For the schools and roads
Happy to be here
They took it seriously
The second job of citizenry
My mother went campaigning door to door
And holding to her hand was me

I was just a girl in a room full of women
Licking stamps and laughing
I remember the feeling of community brewing
Of democracy happening

But I suppose like anybody
I had to teach myself to see
All that stuff that got lost
On its way to church
All that stuff that got lost
On its way to school
All that stuff that got lost
On its way to the house of my family
All that stuff that was not lost on me

Teach myself to see each of us
Through the lens of forgiveness
Like we're stuck with each other (god forbid!)
Teach myself to smile and stop and talk
To a whole other color kid
Teach myself to be new in an instant
Like the truth is accessible at any time
Teach myself it's never really one or the other
There's a paradox in every paradigm

I was just a girl in a room full of women
Licking stamps and laughing
I remember the feeling of community brewing
Of democracy happening

Minerva lyrics - Ani Difranco

You wandered in
To the forest
Following that shiny red ball
And by the time you looked up
You were lost
But that's not all

You confused your journey
With my journey
You tried to nail me
Like minerva to your bow
But my job here
Is not to deliver you
But to hold a mirror
Till you see how

Oh say can you see me
Oh say can you see me
Oh say can you see me over here?

You want me
To tell you a story
But I am weary
Of entertaining
I'll have more to say when I'm happy
'Course, then I'll have less to sing

But there's no me
Left for me
No incidental time of day
No wild adventures
Except in darkness
So dark I'd rather not say

Oh say can you see me
Oh say can you see me
Oh say can you see me over here?
Over here
Way over here

Recoil lyrics - Ani Difranco

Come home and my guitar
Has nothin to say to me
I recoil from all my friends
And then I'm in misery
Been so long since I've been held
Really since I was his
Probably just need to be held
That's probably all it is

Course, then I think of my dad
Who time travels mostly now
Back to when he was free
And holding out hope somehow
Who sits all day in a line
Of wheelchairs against a wall
Inventing ways to play out time
Like us all
Like us all

To all the people out there tonight
Who are comforting themselves
If you should happen to see my light
You can stop and ring my bell
I'm just sittin here in this sty
Strewn with half written songs
Taking one breath at a time
Nothin much going on
Nothin much going on

Little flashing zero
On my answering machine
Rats scratching at my brain
Brain shuffling its feet
Yes I have my father's heart
It may or may not keep on trying
Can't really tell you what it is
Keeps me this side of that dark line

But I'm not there to take care of him
And I'm not here to take care of me
I'm going outside to watch the house burn down
Across the street
I'm going outside to watch the house burn down
Across the street

To all the people out there tonight
Who are comforting themselves
If you should happen to see my light
You can stop and ring my bell
I'm just sitting here in this sty
Strewn with half written songs
Taking one breath at a time
Nothin much going on
Nothin much going on

"Educated Guess" (2004)

Platforms lyrics - Ani Difranco

Life knocked me off my platforms
So I pulled out my first pair of boots
Bought on the street at astor place
Before New York was run by suits
And I suited up for the long walk
Back to myself
Closer to the ground now
With sorrow
And stealth

Swim lyrics - Ani Difranco

You keep telling me I'm beautiful
But I feel a little less so each time
Your love is so colorful
It flashes like a neon sign
But I finally drove out where
The sky is dark enough to see stars
And I found I missed no one
Just listening to the swishing of distant cars

I hope I never see
The ocean again
Pushing and pulling at me
As I go deeper and deeper in
Til I'm so far from my shore
So far from what I came here for
I let you surround me
I let you drown me
Out with your din
And then I learned how to swim

I was floating above myself
Watching her do just what you wanted
Poor little friendly ghost
Wondering why her whole house feels haunted
I told myself I was strong enuf
That I had plenty of blood to give
And each elbow cradled a needle
But listless and faint ain't no way to live

So I hope I never see
The ocean again
Pushing and pulling at me
As I go deeper and deeper in
Til I'm so far from my shore
So far from what I came here for
I let you surround me
I let you drown me
Out with your din
And then I learned how to swim

You keep telling me I'm beautiful
But I feel a little less so each time
Your love is so colorful
It flashes like a neon sign
But I finally drove out where
The sky is dark enough to see stars
And I found I missed no one
Just listening to the swishing of distant cars

Educated Guess lyrics - Ani Difranco

Looks like my crazy family
Is down one crazy daughter cuz
I'm shipwrecked in a desert that
Once was underwater just
Looking for a swift turn of phrase
Some colors to fly
As I float by
In the parade

Plus I dream in skin scented sentences
Of a stronger faster fiercer you
And to each noun, verb and predicate
I dedicate a vivid hue
But you ain't done too well
Getting past your permanent pastel
Have you now?
Yes, the desert seemed so promising
And then it paled somehow

So school is in session
Get your chin off your desk
Now pick up your pencil
And turn over your test
Use your education
And take an educated guess
About me

I've got a slot at eye level like
A speakeasy door
And I know you know the password
Cuz I've seen you here before
And I've got something sweet for you
And I don't care if it is more than you deserve
I've got a lot of love and a lot of nerve
So watch me while I take this curve

Yes school is in session
Get your chin off your desk
Now pick up your pencil
And turn over your test
Use your education
And take an educated guess
About me

Plus I have this whole new family
And I'm in love with each of them
And I'm on this list called lucky
Whenever I'm in reach of them
And I'm learning how to say
That I'd be happy either way
With your love

I'm calling on the stars above

School is in session
Get your chin off your desk
Now pick up your pencil
Turn over your test
Use your education
And take an educated guess
About me

Origami lyrics - Ani Difranco

I am an all powerful amazon warrior
Not just some sniveling girl
So no matter what I think I need
You know I can't possibly
Have a need in this world

Come and come for that sweet sweetness
I'll be your never ending vending machine
I could never need to be alone
Never need to be my own
As much as you need your queen

I know men are delicate
Origami creatures
Who need women to unfold them
Hold them when they cry
But I am tired of being your savior
And I am tired of telling you why

And since when did this me me me
Become the be all and end all of me
Oh listen to you talk to me
Long time love has got to breathe, babe
You got to let it ebb and flow
If you want a ball to bounce
You gotta let it go
Just let it go

I know men are delicate
Origami creatures
Who need women to unfold them
Hold them when they cry
But I am tired of being your savior
And I am tired of telling you why

Bliss Like This lyrics - Ani Difranco

I said Venice
You heard Vegas
Now I say either way
Baby let's go
I get so shaky
And I just can't shake it
I bliss like this
I'm one of those

But I don't wanna wear you
Wear you like a band-aid
Wave you like a ticket
Out of my good grief
I just wanna know you
Know you like I know my garden
What you smell like when you're bloomin
What lives underneath
Deep down underneath
Way down underneath

We do a whole lotta laughin
At the shyness that surrounds us
I do a whole lotta lookin
Somewhere else
I don't need to look
No, I can just feel you
Besides every time I see you
It just forces me to look at myself

Cuz I get so shaky
And I just can't shake it
I bliss like this
I'm one of those
And I said Venice
And you heard Vegas
But now I say either way
Let's go
C'mon baby let's go

True Story Of What Was lyrics - Ani Difranco

The light blue flickering rhythm
Of the neighbor's big console T.V.
Is basking on the ceiling
Of another insomniac spree
And outside sleep's open window
Between the drops of rain
History is writing a recipe book
For every earthly pain

Oh to clean up the clutter of echoes
Coming in and out of focus
Words spoken
Like locusts
Sing and sing
In my head

And thing is
They often seem
In my memory's long dream
To be superfluous to
The true story of what was

Cuz

Real is real regardless
Of what you try to say
Or say away
Real is real relentless
While words distract and dismay
Words that change their tune
Though the story remains the same
Words that fill me quickly
And then are slow to drain
Dialogues that dither down reminiscent
Of the way it likes to rain
Every screen
A smoke screen
Oh to dream
Just for a moment
The picture
Outside the frame

Then in a flash
The light blue horizon
Spanning a sudden black
Is sucked into the vanishing point
And quiet rushes back
To search for the downbeat
In a tabla symphony
To search in the darkness
For someone who looks like me

(Though I'm not really who I said I was
Or who I thought I'd be)

Just a collection of recollections
Conversations consisting
Of the kind of marks we make
When we're trying to get a pen to work again

A lifetime of them!

Cough...cough...ahem...

I say to me
Now here listening
I say to the locusts
That sing and sing to me sitting
Now here on the front porch swing of my eyes...
I hereby amend
Whatever I've ever said
With this sigh

Bodily lyrics - Ani Difranco

You broke me bodily
The heart ain't the half of it
And I'll never learn to laugh at it
In my good natured way
In fact I'm laughing less in general
But I learned a lot at my own funeral
And I knew you'd be the death of me
So I guess that's the price I pay

I'm trying to make new memories
In cities where we fell in love
My head just barely above
The darkest water I've ever known
You had me in that cage
You had me jumpin through those hoops for you
Still, I think I'd stoop for you
Stoop for your eyes alone

From that bomb shell moon in yet another lovely dress
To the deep mahogany sheen of a roach
I am trying to take an appreciative approach
To life in your wake
I focus on the quiet now
And occasionally I'll fall asleep somehow
And emptiness has its solace
In that there's nothing left to take

You Each Time lyrics - Ani Difranco

There you were day after day
Six feet
Twenty feet
Two feet away
Right in my pocket singin me a song
Makin my heart race all day long

And we talked it out and we talked it down
But your eyes were not listening
And my ears were looking around
For another song to sing
But it was you each time
It was you

The answer to each moment must be yes
And the question... can you live with that?
Becomes the test
So you weigh it against that aching in your chest
And that secretly relentless emptiness

And you talk it out and you talk it down
But your eyes are not listening
And my ears are running around
Looking for another song to sing
But it is you each time
It is you

So my heart finally broke
It was so long bent
And it broke in three places
When it finally went
It wanted only to say what it meant
So it suffered every punishment

Now it lives in a shack outside of town
And only the wolves are out there listening
And in her dreams they chase her down
Their moonlit eyes are glistening
And it is you each time
It is you

Animal lyrics - Ani Difranco

More and more there is this animal
Looking out through my eyes
At all the traffic on the road to nowhere
At all the shiny stuff around to buy
At all the wires in the air
At all the people shopping
For the same blank stare
At america the drastic
That isolated geographic
That's become infested with millionaires

When you grow up surrounded
By willful ignorance
You have to believe
Mercy has its own country
And that it's round and borderless
And then you have to grow wings
And rise above it all
Like there
Where that hawk is circling
Above that strip mall

More and more there is this animal
Looking out through my eyes
Seeing that animals only take from this world
What they need to survive
But she is prowling through all the religions of men
Seeing that time and time and time again
Their gods have made them
Special and above
Nature's law
And the respect thereof

And I think when you grow up surrounded
By willful ignorance
You have to believe that mercy has its own country
And that it's round and borderless
And then you just grow wings
And rise above it all
Like there where that hawk is circling
Above that strip mall

Ask any eco-system
Harm here is harm there
And there and there
And aggression begets aggression
It's a very simple lesson
That long preceded any king of heaven
And there's this brutal imperial power
That my passport says I represent
But it will never represent where my heart lives
Only vaguely where it went

Cuz I know when you grow up surrounded
By willful ignorance
You learn that mercy has its own country
And that it's round and borderless
And then you just grow wings
And rise above it all
Like there
Where that hawk is circling
Above that strip mall

Grand Canyon lyrics - Ani Difranco

I love my country
By which I mean
I am indebted joyfully
To all the people throughout its history
Who have fought the government to make right
Where so many cunning sons and daughters
Our foremothers and forefathers
Came singing through slaughter
Came through hell and high water
So that we could stand here
And behold breathlessly the sight
How a raging river of tears
Cut a grand canyon of light

Yes, I've bin so many places
Flown through vast empty spaces
With stewardesses whose hands
Look much older than their faces
I've tossed so many napkins
Into that big hole in the sky
Bin at the bottom of the Atlantic
Seething in a two-ply
Looking up through all that water
And the fishes swimming by
And I don't always feel lucky
But I'm smart enough to try
Cuz humility has buoyancy
And above us only sky
So I lean in
Breathe deeper that brutal burning smell
That surrounds the smoldering wreckage
That I've come to love so well
Yes, color me stunned and dazzled
By all the red white and blue flashing lights
In the American intersection
Where black crashed head on with white
Comes a melody
Comes a rhythm
A particular resonance
That is us and only us
Comes a screaming ambulance
A hand that you can trust
Laid steady on your chest
Working for the better good
(Which is good at its best)
And too, bearing witness
Like a woman bears a child...
With all her might

Born of the greatest pain
Into a grand canyon of light

I mean, no song has gone unsung here
And this joint is strung crazy tight
And people bin raising up their voices
Since it just ain't bin right
With all the righteous rage
And all the bitter spite
That will accompany us out
Of this long night
That will grab us by the hand
When we are ready to take flight
Seatback and traytable
In the upright and locked position
Shocked to tears by each new vision
Of all that my ancestors have done

Like, say, the women who gave their lives
So that I could have one

People, we are standing at ground zero
Of the feminist revolution
Yeah, it was an inside job
Stoic and sly
One we're supposed to forget
And downplay and deny
But I think the time is nothing
If not nigh
To let the truth out
Coolest f-word ever deserves a fucking shout!
I mean
Why can't all decent men and women
Call themselves feminists?
Out of respect
For those who fought for this
I mean, look around
We have this

Yes
I love my country
By which I mean
I am indebted joyfully
To all the people throughout its history
Who have fought the government to make right
Where so many cunning sons and daughters
Our foremothers and forefathers
Came singing through slaughter
Came through hell and high water
So that we could stand here
And behold breathlessly the sight
How a raging river of tears
Is cutting a grand canyon of light

Company lyrics - Ani Difranco

What's the point
Of all this pointless proximity
If you won't talk
Take me for a walk
Through a little story

All these years
Have made me sick to tears
Of such mysteries
Why should I keep you
If you won't keep me
Company?

Til I get to know you
I ain't gonna show you nothing
Wordlessly
Whatchoo think this is?
You think that that grin
Gonna get you in
Where you wanna be?

Do I have to stand under your little cloud
Just to get near you
Baby can't you help this little girl
Not to fear you
Why don't you just talk
Take me for a walk
Through a little story

And tell me
Why should I keep you
If you won't keep me
Company?

Rain Check lyrics - Ani Difranco

As dolls go I am broken
And you could just let that get us off the hook
But from under the umbrella of the unspoken
I see you giving me that look

Baby, you're right as rain about the benefits
But you might be wrong about the costs
And it feeds my heart that you came looking for me
But I'm thinkin I need to stay lost

So I won't say I saw you fibbing
Or jump-jigging across the floor
I won't say you walked me to my car
And draped your arm on my open door

I know my mind is made of matter
But I need to know exactly
What is the matter at it's core?
Because my heart is just a muscle
And simply put, it's sore

So never mind about the benefits
And never mind about the costs
That don't change the basic premises
In which I am surely lost

So I won't say I saw you fibbing
Or jump-jigging across the floor
I won't say you walked me to my car
And draped your arm on my open door

Akimbo lyrics - Ani Difranco

What dreams cause me
To abandon my pillow each night?
Push away each of them, in fact
Since there always seem to be more than one
Then wake to aching stiff neck twisted
Tits and face smashed against the mattress
Legs and arms akimbo
Like the high pitched body of a jumper
Waiting for her chalk outline
Finally at rest

Bubble lyrics - Ani Difranco

I hated to pop the bubble
Of me and you
But it only held enough oxygen
For a trip or two
To the moon and back again
Tell me, do you remember when
Our love had such grace
We were floating above this whole place

It's dawn on the corner
Where the city tests its squeaky breaks
Outside my bedroom window
A doppler muffler and a boomin bass
It's dawn and the snow
Is turning on its deepest blue
So I go outside just to stand there and
Look at my hands against the color
I find I always return to

I want you to always remember for me
Baby, if you can
How much you hated the woman
Who made you a man
And remember for me won't you
Back further before that
How you loved her like a boy
Cried from the joy
When you weren't laughing

No, I hated to pop the bubble
Of me and you
But it only held enough oxygen
For a trip or two
To the moon and back again
Do you remember when
Our love had such grace
We were floating above this whole place

So I hear these days you too
Are trying your hand at sleeplessness
A few more dizzying doppler lovers
And then a booming loneliness
How innocent the young student
On the day school has begun
When I said this was what I wanted
Did you think I thought it would be fun?

No, I hated to pop the bubble
Of me and you
But it only held enough oxygen
For a trip or two
To the moon and back again
Oh but I remember when
Our love had such grace
We were floating above this whole place

"Evolve" (2003)

Promised Land lyrics - Ani Difranco

you're taking up lots of space
your shit is everywhere
your breath is all up in my face
your hands are swarming in the air

you're the first one out the car
and then the loudest one in the bar
tell me is there something wrong
girlfriend, what's with this new version of who you are

so she lifts her chin and
squints at me
to assess what I think I know
she says my heart has some dangerous neighborhoods
so beware where you try to go

and they say that the truth will set you free
but then again, so will a lie
it depends if you're trying to get to the promised land
or if you're just trying to get by

what is a camera but a box of light
what is a guitar but a box of sound
you think I don't understand
I think I might

what it is to
to harvest the emptiness
and just ride it around

and maybe your chest is an empty shell
with ribs of spiraling coral
where a perfect pearl of sadness resides
but if you ever need it here
I could come and press it there
and I could listen to the sound of the ocean inside

In The Way lyrics - Ani Difranco

no you didn't just leave
I actually kicked you out
I couldn't hardly believe
that the words came out my mouth
you couldn't hardly believe
what you heard yourself discuss
and you packed up all your things
and you said goodbye to us

tell me what is in the way
in the way of my love for you?
tell me what is in the way
in the way of my love for you?
hafta get it outta of the way of my love
hafta get it outta of the way of my love

and now there's nothing left to lose,
and the screen just says "Fini"
and each night in separate rooms
we cry separately
and every day we yell
down each other's holes
two slippery strippers
swinging round two poles

tell me what is in the way
in the way of my love for you?
tell me what is in the way
in the way of my love for you?
yeah there's something in the way of my love for you
yeah there's something in the way of my love

so we took down all the pictures
and then we took down all the walls
packed up our expectations
piled them in the hall
yeah we bagged our future
kicked it to the curb
and then we stood there unencumbered
and we stood there undeterred
cause we were done clinging
to the things we were afraid to lose
and the only thing left
was a breathtaking view
you looked at me
and I looked at you
and we said, "How about now,
"what you wanna do?"

now there's something in the way
in the way of my love for you
now there's something in the way
in the way of my love for you
I have to get it out the way
out the way of my love for you
I have to get it out the way
out the way of my love for you

no you didn't just leave
no you didn't just leave
no you didn't just leave
no you didn't just leave

Icarus lyrics - Ani Difranco

seems like you just
started noticing
how noticably bad things really are
and when you walked past this couple arguing
in a rolled up window
of a parked car
and all of that
gesticulated bitterness
and all of that
muffled yelling hell
its dark just starts wafting at you
like a big fury rat died
inside of that wall kinda smell

breathe like it's rolling like a cold front
thunder is thundering and lightening in tow
and your tiny little life gets
even smaller
as you heed the heaven's mighty show

and I don't mean heaven
like god-like
the animal in me knows very well
nature is our teacher, our leader, and our lover
and god is just another story that we tell

and you're trying not to grasp-not to start grasping
at straws -or sticks- or stones
just learn how to sit inside your sadness
even if you're sitting there alone

it's just like Icarus ascending
never intending to look back
nature's law and your tragic flaw
I find descending
flying into the arms of a Venus flytrap

guzzle till the buzzer stops
guzzle till the buzzer stops
guzzle till the buzzer stops
guzzle till the buzzer stops
guzzle till the buzzer stops

Slide lyrics - Ani Difranco

she was hungry
so hungry
she was trying to think clear
she kept opening the fridge door
staring at the mustard and the beer

then finally she went out into the rain
carrying her bicycle chain
and her feet were the pedals
while her appetite steered
and after that she just followed her nose
and fate is not just
whose cooking smells good
but which way the wind blows

she lay down in her party dress
and never got up
needless to say
she missed the party
she just got sad
then she got stuck

she was bending
like something brittle
trying hard to bend
she was numb
with the terror
of losing her best friend
we never see things changing
we only see them ending

and some vicious whispering voice kept saying
you have no choice
you have....

'cause when I look at you I squint
you are that beautiful
and my pussy is a tractor
and this is a tractor pull
and I am haunted
by my illicit exquisite dream
but I can't really wake up
so I just drift in between
thinking the glass is half-empty
and thinking it's not quite full
the pouring rain is no place for a bicycle ride
try to hit the brakes and you slide
slide
slide
slide

the pouring rain is no place for a bicycle ride
try to hit the brakes and you
slide
slide
slide
slide
slide
slide
slide
slide
slide

Oh My My lyrics - Ani Difranco

your body
forshortened below your shoulders
your face so close it's out of focus
way down the hallway
comes the sound of your shoes
this is when I think about when I think about you

if we let our love off of it's leash
do you fear like I fear how fierce it would be?

your headlights sweepin'
across my ceiling
the breath of my smile
the depth of my feeling
way down in my dark light of shadows
your life with sharp things that glow
this is what I think about when I think about you

if we let our love off of its leash
do you fear like I fear how fierce it would be?

oh my my
oh my my
oh my my
oh my my
oh my my
oh my my
oh my my
oh my my

Evolve lyrics - Ani Difranco

I walk in stride with people
much taller than me
and partly it's the boots but
mostly it's my chi
and I'm becoming transfixed
with nature and my part in it
which I believe just signifies
I'm finally waking up

and there's this moth outside my kitchen door
she's bonkers for that bare bulb
flying round in circles
bashing in her exoskull
and out in the woods she navigates fine by the moon
but get her around a light bulb and she's doomed

she is trying to evolve
she's just trying to evolve

now let's get talking reefer madness
like some arrogant government can't
by any stretch of the imagination
outlaw a plant
yes, their supposed authority over nature
is a dream
c'mon people
we've got to come clean

cuz they are locking our sons
and our daughters in cages
they are taking by the thousands
our lives from under us
it's a crash course in religious fundamentals
now let's all go to war
get some bang for our buck

I am trying to evolve
I'm just trying to evolve

gunnin for high score in the land of dreams
morbid bluish-white consumers ogling luminous screens
on the trail of forgetting
cruising without a care
the jet set won't abide by that pesky jet lag
and our lives boil down to an hour or two
when someone pulls a camera out of a bag

and I am trying to evolve
I'm just trying to evolve

so I walk like I'm on a mission
cuz that's the way I groove
I got more and more to do
I got less and less to prove
it took me too long to realize
that I don't take good pictures
cuz I have the kind of beauty
that moves

Shrug lyrics - Ani Difranco

what's with that halo hovering
above that thick skull
spare me
if I do say so - I think you're covering
'course there was nothing
could've prepared me

for the side effect of this dirty drug
the way you punish me and then you shrug

what's with that phone call, baby
it's like you're trying
just trying to crush me
do you feel stronger each time you push me, dear
did you tell your mom you carpet bombed
before you left here

and is it just the side effect of this dirty drug
or does each apology sound more like a shrug

are you at home now with your kitty cats
are you just at home now with the way that you act
do you split the rent there with all your secrets
or do you just pretend to all your friends
they're uninvited guests

yes and when you want it tidy tell me
can you still dispel me
sweep me neatly under the rug
does your conscience ever mention
the way that you treat me
or do you just fend it off with a ...

Phase lyrics - Ani Difranco

I'll be your biggest fan, I will be your fool
I'll be your exception to every rule

and I ain't the type to bitch
I ain't the type to cry
I'll sit at your red light
and wait for your ship to go by

and this vague little smile is my all-purpose expression
the meaning of which I will leave to your discretion

yeah my distraction is my defense against this lack of inspiration
against this slowly deflation
yeah the further the horizon you know the more it warps my gaze
the foreground's out of focus but you know I kinda hope it's
just a phase, just a phase
just a phase, just a phase
just a phase, just a phase
just a phase

I've been through and through this, I know just how it goes
you'll have no idea, you'll have no need to know
I will make your body grow wings and take flight
I will erase sound, I will erase light

I said this vague little smile is my all-purpose expression
the meaning of which I will leave to your discretion

yes my distraction is my defense against this lack of inspiration
against this slowly deflation
yeah the further the horizon the more it warps my gaze
and the foreground's out of focus but you know I kinda hope it's
just a phase, just a phase
just a phase, just a phase
just a phase, just a phase
just a phase

Here For Now lyrics - Ani Difranco

I bet you're wondering if you woke today
just to learn why the caged bird sings
I bet you're wondering if the goddesses are all crazy
or just keeping it interesting
situated slightly outside society
at odds with its odd offerings
I bet you're teetering on the edge of sobriety
just to alleviate a few things

like the fear that you're standing here
because you want to be liked
like you know you need your instrument
but does your instrument need to be mic'd
and you keep imagining that pretty soon
you will just disappear
and thinking that one thing is what saves you from
your fear of being here
here for now, you're here for now, you're here for now

I bet you're looking for the little red 'X'
next to the red arrow and the sign says 'you are here'
I bet you're hoping that your heart will send up the white flag this time
or some sign that the coast is clear
and the moment when your heart jumps in all that's happening
it's like the first time you felt that shock
yes, your heart jumps in all that's happening
and I was right behind the door when you knocked

thinking maybe I'm just standing here
because I want to be liked
yes, I know I need my instrument
but does my instrument need to me mic'd
I keep imagining that pretty soon
I will just disappear
and thinking that one thing is what saves me from
my fear of being here
here for now, I'm here for now, I'm here for now
here for now, I'm here for now, I'm here for now

Second Intermission lyrics - Ani Difranco

second intermission
anticipation
you know the third act
small talk drops out of the play
you're standing in the lobby
tightening your tourniquet
waiting for it
and then the bell sounds
and the lights flash
and there's all these questions milling around
and there's no time to ask

no bliss for little miss leading
cuz she's learning about bleeding
but what is love if not exquisite
our only saving grace
or is it?
and somewhere inside your iris
blooms the reflection of my surprise
as you stroll past every last do not enter
and touch me at my epicenter
and the bell sounds
and the lights flash
and there's all these questions milling around
and there's no time to ask

I'm always trying to get there
I never really get there
to that quiet place where
I accept myself
instead I'm deep inside some high school
locker room no clothing
popping the zits of my self loathing
under fluorescent lights
and the bell sounds
and the lights flash
and there's all these questions milling around
and you're too ashamed to ask

second intermission
anticipation
you know the third act
small talk drops out of the play
and you're standing in the lobby
tightening your tourniquet
waiting for it
waiting for it

Serpentine lyrics - Ani Difranco

Pavlov hits me with more bad news every time I answer the phone
so I play and I sing and I just let it ring,
all day when I'm at home

a defacto choice of
macro-microcosmic melancholy
but baby any way you slice it,
I'm thinkin I could just as soon use the time alone

yeah the goons have gone global
and the CEO's are shredding files
and the democrans and the republicrats
are flashing their toothy smiles

and Uncle Tom is posing for a photo-op with the oval office klan
and Uncle Sam is riggin' cockfights in the promised land
and that knife you stuck in my back is still there
it pinches a little when I sigh and moan
and these days I'm thinkin I could just as soon use the time alone

cause all the wrong people have the power of suggestion
and the freedom of the press is meaningless if nobody asks the question
I mean causation by definition is such a complex compilation of factors
that to even try to say why is to oversimplify
that's a far cry, isn't it dear, from acting like you're the only one there
unrepentantly self-centered and unfair

enter all suckers scrambling for the truth
exit mr. eye-contact who took his flirt and flew the coup
but whatever, no matter, no fishin trips, no fishin
cause momma's officially out of commission

and did I mention in there somewhere
did I mention somewhere in there
that I traded Babe Ruth,
yes I traded the only player
that was bigger than the game
and I can't even tell you why,
cause you'd think I'm insane.
and that's the truth

and the music industry mafia is pimping girl power
sniping off sharp-shooter singles from their styrofoam towers,
and hip-hop is tied up in the back room with a logo stuffed in its mouth
cause the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house

but then, I'm getting away from myself
as I get closer and closer home
and the difference between you and me baby
is I get fucked up when I'm alone

and I must admit today
that my inner pessimist seems to have gotten the best of me
we start out sugared up on kool aid and manifest destiny
and then we memorize all the presidents names like little trained monkeys
and we spit into the world so many spinny-eyed TV junkies

incapable of unraveling the military-industrial mystery
pre-emptively passified with history book history
and I've been around the world now and I can see this about America

the mind control is deep here, man
the myopia is steep here, man

and behold those who try to expose the reality
really try to realize democracy
are shot with rubber bullets and gassed off the streets
while the global power brokers are kept clean and discreet
behind a wall
behind a moat
and that is all
that's all
that's all she wrote

and my heart beats an s-s-s o-o-o s-s-s
cause folks just really couldn't care-care-care less-less-less
as long as every day is superbowl sunday
and larger than life women in lingerie are pouting at us from every bus stop
she loves me, she loves me not
she loves me, she loves me not
she loves me, she loves me not

and "big government should not stand between a man and his money"
i mean, "what's good for business is good for the country"
our children still take that lie like communion,
the same old line the Confederacy used on the Union

conjugate liberty into libertarian
and medicated associated with deregulation privitization
we won't even know we're slaves on a corporate plantation

somebody say hallelujah,
somebody say damnation,
cause the profit system follows the path of least resistance
and the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked
makes it serpentine
capitalism is the devil's wet dream

so just give me my Judy garland drugs and let me get back to work
cause the empire state building is the tallest building in New York
and I have always got the feeling
you just like to hear it fall off your tongue

but I remember my name in your mouth
and I don't think I was done hearing it close to my ear
on a whisper's way to a moan

Pavlov hits me with more bad news every time I answer the phone
so I play and I sing and just let it ring,
all day when I'm at home

a defacto choice of
macro-microcosmic melancholy
but baby any way you slice it,
I'm thinkin I could just as soon use the time alone

Welcome To: lyrics - Ani Difranco

welcome to:
no amount of stoned makes you feel ok
welcome to:
this year's alone - brought to you by Christmas day
welcome to:
the darkness into which prayin people pray

it's quiet here except for this song
now that everybody's gone
but hey
least you don't have to play along today

welcome to:
something like elation when you first open your eyes
just cuz it means
that you musta finally got to sleep last night
welcome to:
the precipice between groundlessness and flight

it's quiet here except for this song
now that everybody's gone
but hey
least you don't have to play along today

besides which
welcome to:
taking the good stuff down off of the shelf
and welcome to:
the art of conversation with yourself
welcome to:
humming an unbroken tune
all day long
yes it's quiet here
but hey
least you don't have to play along today

"Revelling / Reckoning" (2001)

Ain't That The Way lyrics - Ani Difranco

i love you and you love me and ain't that that way it's supposed to be? i
swing my stick legs 'round from the root and i pile drive each foot into a
platform boot. and i'm up and i'm out cuz i'm bouncing off the walls. and i
come when you call and you call. i got a super cute three piece suit. one
piece for your body. one piece for your smile. one more little piece if you
stay a while. yeah, cuz i love you and you love me. ain't that the way it's
supposed to be? i gotta beeline double time. leave my home sweet home for your
honeycomb. then i show up steady ready and proud and i find i've forgotten how
to talk out loud. isn't it just like you to bring me to my knees in my brand
new stockings while the cat is out with my tongue. isn't it just like you to
bring me to my knees in my brand new stockings. love makes me feel so dumb.
cuz i love you and you love me and ain't that the way it's supposed to be?
yeah, cuz i love you and you love the me. ain't that the way it's supposed to
be?

O.K. lyrics - Ani Difranco

if you ask me
i'll say
yes please
to you today
so don't ask me
cuz i'm weak that way
just don't ask me
o.k.

i'm so glad we got that
straightened away

if you see me
walk by
you better just let me
walk by
you better not
bat your pretty eyes
you better not
stop me to say hi

i got a sweet tooth today
so you better not cut that pie

if you ask me
i'll say
yes please
to you today
so don't ask me
cuz i'm weak that way
just don't ask me
o.k.

Garden Of Simple lyrics - Ani Difranco

some crazy fucker carved a sculpture out of butter
and propped it up in the middle of the bonanza breakfast bar
and i am stuffing toast and sausage into my pockets
under a sign that says grand opening
while my dog is waiting in the car

i wake up, i check out
i fill the tank and wash the windshield clean
then i'm back out on the highway
and BANG that's when i remember my dream:

we were standing in a garden
and i had a machine that made silence
it just sucked up the whole opinionated din
and there were no people on the payroll
and there were no monkeys on our backs
and i said, show me what you look like
without skin

science chases money
and money chases its tail
and the best minds of my generation
can't make bail
but the bacteria are coming to take us down
that's my prediction
it's the answer to this culture
of the quick fix prescription

but in the garden of simple
where all of us are nameless
you were never anything but beautiful to me
and, you know, they never really owned you
you just carried them around
and then one day you put 'em down
and found your hands were free

so now it's early in the morning
at the longitude of memphis
and the sun is setting sweetly on hong kong
and the big plan is just to keep spinning
cuz the big bang is only just beginning
and sometimes it's all that we can do just to hang on

and what i meant to say is xxoo which means i'm thinking of ya
which means i've been thinking of you
all along

Tamburitza Lingua lyrics - Ani Difranco

a cold and porcelain lonely
in an old new york hotel
a stranger to a city
that she used to know so well
bathing in a bathroom
that is bathed in the first blue light
of the beginning of a century
at the end of an endless night

then she is wet behind the ears and wafting down the avenue
pre-rush hour
post-rain shower
stillness seeping upwards like steam
from another molten sewer
summer in new york

they've been spraying us with chemicals in our sleep
us / they
something about the mosquitoes having some kind of disease
them / me
CIA foul play
if you ask the guy selling hair dryers out of a gym bag
chemical warfare
"i'm telling you, lab rat to lab rat," he says, "that's where the truth is at"
that's where the truth is at
that's where the truth is at

and everything seems to have gone terribly wrong that can
but one breath at a time is an acceptable plan
she tells herself
and the air is still there
and this morning it's even breathable
and for a second the relief is unbelievable
and she's a heavy sack of flour sifted
her burden lifted
she's full of clean wind for one lean moment
and then she's trapped again
reverted
caged and contorted
with no way to get free
and she's getting plenty of little kisses
but nobody's slippin' her the key

her whole life is a long list of what ifs
and she doesn't even know where to begin
and the pageantry of suffering therein
rivals television
tv is, after all, the modern day roman coliseum
human devastation as mass entertainment
and now millions sit jeering
collectively cheering
the bloodthirsty hierarchy of the patriarchal arrangement

she is hailing a cab
she is sailing down the avenue
she's 19 going on 30
or maybe she's really 30 now ...
it's hard to say
it's hard to keep up with time once it's on its way

and, you know, she never had much of a chance
born into a family built like an avalanche
and somewhere in the 80s between the oat bran and the ozone
she started to figure out things like why
one eye pointed upwards looking for the holes in the sky
one eye on the little flashing red light
a picasso face twisted and listing down the canvas
of the end of an endless night

10 9 8 seven six 5 4 three 2 one
and kerplooey
you're done.
you're done for.
you're done for good.
so tell me
did you?
did you do
did you do all you could ?

Marrow lyrics - Ani Difranco

the answer came like a shot in the back while you
were running from your lesson, which might explain why years later all you
could remember was the terror of the question. plus, you weren't listening
hard, you were stockpiling canned goods and making a bomb shelter of our
basement. and i can't believe you let the moral go by while you were soaking in
the product placement. and where was your conscience? where was your
consciousness? and where did you put all those letters that you wrote to
yourself but could not address? yeah, i'm a good kisser, and you're a fast
learner, and that kind of thing could float us for a pretty long time. and
then one day, you'd realized you've memorized my phone number, and you'll
call it and find it's a disconnected line. cuz i got tossed out the window of
love's el camino and i shattered into a shower of sparks on the curb. you
were smoking me weren't you between your yellow fingers, you just inhaled and
exhaled without saying a word. where was your conscience? where was your
consciousness? and what did you do with all those letters you wrote to
yourself but could not address? there's a smorgasbord of unspoken poisons,
the whole childhood of potions that are all bottled up, and so one by one i
am dusting off labels, i am uncorking bottles and i am filling up cups. go
ahead and have a taste of your own medicine. here i'll have a taste of mine,
but first lets toast to the lists that we hold in our fists of the things
that we promised to do differently next time. cuz the answer came like a shot
in the back while you ran from your lesson which might explain why years
later all you could remember the terror of the question. cause i'm not listening
to you anymore. my head is too sore and my heart's perforated and i am mired in the marrow of my
"well ain't that funny?" bone, learning how to be alone and
devastated. where was my conscience? where was my consciousness? and where
do i put all these letters that i wrote to myself but could not address?

Heartbreak Even lyrics - Ani Difranco

it's a heartbreak even situation
nothing lost and nothing gained
so i'm 10 years old again
standing in the backyard waving at a train

i feel you make love to me slightly
every time you let a little laugh slip too soon
and the moment passes over us so lightly
it feels like sand blowing over a dune

you try not to let your emotions show
but it ain't a balloon you can just let go
it's an ice cream cone dripping in the sun
sticky hands
sticky arms
sticky situation

it's a heartbreak even situation
one part powerful elation
one part pitiful and frail
and i'm trying to feel my way around
a book of promises written in braille

there is pressure from within this
and pressure from above
there is pressure on our tenuous, strenuous love
and there's wet wool blankets one, two, three
laid onto my chest
'til i just can't breathe

and i try not to let my emotions show
but it ain't a balloon i can just let go
it's an ice cream cone dripping in the sun
sticky hands
sticky arms
sticky situation

Kazoointoit lyrics - Ani Difranco

i love us both but i don't feel good
so i keep pulling over
and looking under
the hood
i love us both but i'm at wit's end
where does your compromise begin
and mine end?
i love us both but what
world's it gonna be?
the one according to you
or the one according to me?

i don't feel good so ...
now do my problems include
talks with doctors who don't even understand
about food?
i think in ancient china they kinda
figured out how the body works
but our culture is just a roughneck
teenage jerk
with a bottle of pills
and a bottle of booze
and a full round of ammunition
and nothing to lose

and is it really the best we can do
to arm wrestle over whose world it's gonna be?
(the one according to you
or the one according to me)

i love us both and i'll see ya
if you'll see me
so ... who are we?

Whatall Is Nice lyrics - Ani Difranco

today we are only whatall is nice about us
today we turned on in the blue light of dawn
and made love

and you were not a dot dot dot
waiting for me to complete you
and it was like i just forgot
to measure everything that i do

we woke up with the notion
that enough is not enough without more
and then we pushed with one motion
like the ocean heaves a wave at the shore

and you were not a dot dot dot
leaning forward expectantly
and i was not in such a rush
to insure my autonomy

today we are only whatall is nice about us

What How When Where (Why Who) lyrics - Ani Difranco

what what what what what did you think you were doing?
how how how how how did you think this would go?
when when when when when you showed up on my radar
where where where where where did you think you would show?
what what what what what do you make of this station
how how how how how it pulls away from the train?
when when when when when if at all will you realize
where where where where where do and done are the same?
what what what what what now you're out in the open
how how how how how do you think you can hide?
when when when when when will you find some nice soft sand
where where where where where you can bury your pride?
what what what what what do you want from this lifetime?
how how how how how does your story line flow?
when when when when when you finally get to the punch line
where where where where where will the applause sign go?

and why why why why why don't you just take your bow
cuz who's gonna love you now?

Fierce Flawless lyrics - Ani Difranco

she was cuffed to the truth like the truth was a chair with a bright interrogation
light in her eyes. and her conscience with a cigarette just stood there,
waiting for her to crack, waiting for her to cry. they scampered through the
room like a roach across a wall. yeah, they made her skin sore. yeah, they
made her skin crawl. they said, "we got this confession. we just need for
you to sign. why don't you just cooperate? make this easier on us all? make
this easier on us all... just make this easier on us all." there was
light and then there was darkness. and there was no line in between. and asking her heart for
guidance was like pleading with a machine. yeah, cause joy
it has its own justice and my dreams are languid and lawless. and everything
bows to beauty when it is fierce and it is flawless... when it
is fierce... when it is flawless..." on the table were two zip-loc baggies
containing her eyes and her smile. they said we're keeping these as evidence until
this thing goes to trial. meanwhile anguish was fingering solace in another room down the hall.
both were love's accomplices but solace took the fall. now look at her book of
days, it's the same on every page. she's got a little tin cup with her heart
in it to bang along the bars of her rib cage... to bang along the bars of her
rib cage... there was light and then there was darkness. and there was no line
in between. and asking her heart for guidance was like pleading
with a machine. cause joy it has it's own justice and my dreams are made with
all of us. they said "everything bows to beauty when it is fierce and it is
flawless... when it is fierce... when it is flawless..." fierce...
flawless...

Rock Paper Scissors lyrics - Ani Difranco

it's rock paper scissors as to whether i will get over you at all. it's
hand against hand and both hands are mine. it's standing in a circular line,
which is not to say that i'm not also happy. a happy meal with a surprise
inside. surprise, surprise is another bright light in my eyes, exposing all
the stuff i'm not calculating enough to hide. this melancholy that i carry
makes me feel so grown up at the kitchen table doing shots of resignation. i
never thought i'd see the day when i would i say i give up and tame the
stallions of my wildest expectations. but i do not want to know you this way,
surrounded by so much pain. but how am i supposed to let go of you this way,
like a bird into the sky of my brain? i think i could accept all these dark
colors as just part of some bigger color scheme if it wasn't for that drippy
string quartet of sadness underscoring each smiling scene. yeah desire drags
me right out of myself like a gas soaked rope tied to a piece of coal. and i'm
getting pretty good at looking at the bright side while the flames ripple on
the sand and swallow me whole. but this melancholy that i carry makes me feel
so grown up at my kitchen table doing shots of resignation. i never thought
i'd see the day when i would say i give up and break the stallions of my
wildest expectations. but i do not want to know you this way surrounded by so
much pain/ but how am i supposed to let go of you this way like a bird into
the sky of my brain.

Your Next Bold Move lyrics - Ani Difranco

coming of age during the plague
of reagan and bush
watching capitalism gun down democracy
it had this funny effect on me
i guess

i am cancer
i am HIV
and i'm down at the blue jesus
blue cross hospital
just lookin' up from my pillow
feeling blessed

and the mighty multinationals
have monopolized the oxygen
so it's as easy as breathing
for us all to participate

yes they're buying and selling
off shares of air
and you know it's all around you
but it's hard to point and say "there"
so you just sit on your hands
and quietly contemplate

your next bold move
the next thing you're gonna need to prove
to yourself

what a waste of thumbs that are opposable
to make machines that are disposable
and sell them to seagulls flying in circles
around one big right wing

yes, the left wing was broken long ago
by the slingshot of cointelpro
and now it's so hard to have faith in
anything

especially your next bold move
or the next thing you're gonna need to prove
to yourself

you want to track each trickle
back to its source
and then scream up the faucet
'til your face is hoarse
cuz you're surrounded by a world's worth
of things you just can't excuse

but you've got the hard cough of a chain smoker
and you're at the arctic circle playing strip poker
and it's getting colder and colder
everytime you lose

so go ahead
make your next bold move
tell us
what's the next thing you're gonna need to prove
to yourself

Reckoning lyrics - Ani Difranco

you can doubt anything if you think about it long enough. cause what
happened always adjusts to fit what happened after that. and it's hard to feel
like you are free. all you seem to do is referee. i remember when it was just
you and me steppin' up to bat. and win or lose, just that we chose, this
little war is what kills us. and either or it's that this war is, maybe also
what thrills us. we thought we left possession behind. the truth is i was
yours and you weren't mine. i've replayed a thousand times exactly what was
said. cause nothing is as it appears. and the fun house mirrors of your fears
on a roller coaster of all these years with your hands above your head. and
win or lose, just that we chose, this little war is what kills us. and either
or it's that this war is, maybe also what thrills us. and you know i don't
care how fast you run just tell me baby that when you're done with your little
marathon that you still have cab fare home. cause the finish line is a shifty
thing and what is life with reckoning? and baby you are still the song i sing
to myself when i'm alone. and win or lose just that you chose this little war
is what kills you. and either or it's that this war is, maybe also what
thrills you.

So What lyrics - Ani Difranco

who's gonna give a shit
who's gonna take the call
when you find out that the road ahead
is painted on a wall
and you're turned up to top volume
and you're just sitting there in pause
with your feral little secret
scratching at you with its claws
and you're trying hard to figure out
just exactly how you feel
before you end up parked and sobbing
forehead on the steering wheel

who are you now
and who were you then
that you thought somehow
you could just pretend
that you could figure it all out
the mathematics of regret
so it takes two beers to remember now
and five to forget
that i loved you so
yeah, i loved you, so what

how many times undone
can one person be
as they're careening through the facade
of their favorite fantasy
you just close your eyes slowly
like you're waiting for a kiss
and hope some lowly little power
will pull you out of this
but none comes at first
and little comes at all
and when inspiration finally hits you
it barely even breaks your fall

who were you then
and who are you
now that you can't pretend
that you can figure it all out
subtract out the impact
and the fall is all you get
so it takes two beers to remember now
and three more to forget
that i loved you so
yeah, i loved you, so what
i loved you
so what

Imagine That lyrics - Ani Difranco

imagine that i'm on stage under a watchtower of punishing light. and in the
haze is your face bathed in shadow and what's beyond you is hidden from sight.
and somebody right now is yawning and watching me like a tv. and i've been
frantically piling up sandbags against the flood waters of fatigue and
insecurity. and that's when i hear my guitar singing and so i just start
singing along. and somewhere in my chest all the noise just gets crushed by
the song. imagine that i'm at your mercy, imagine that you are at mine. just
pretend that i've been standing here, watching you watching me all of this
time. imagine that you are the weather in the tiny snow globe of this song.
and i am a statue of liberty one inch long. so here i am at my most hungry,
and here i am at my most full. and here i am waving a red cape, locking eyes
with a bull. imagine that i'm on stage under a watchtower of punishing light.
and in the haze is your face bathed in shadow and what's beyond you is hidden
from sight.

Grey lyrics - Ani Difranco

the sky is grey, the sand is grey, and the ocean is grey. i feel right at
home in this stunning monochrome, alone in my way. i smoke and i drink and
every time i blink i have a tiny dream. but as bad as i am i'm proud of the
fact that i'm worse than i seem. what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've
got everything i want and still i want more. maybe some tiny shiny thing will
wash up on the shore. you walk through my walls like a ghost on tv. you
penetrate me and my little pink heart is on its little brown raft floating out
to sea. and what can i say but i'm wired this way and you're wired to me, and
what can i do but wallow in you unintentionally? what kind of paradise am i
looking for? i've got everything i want and still i want more. maybe some tiny
shiny key will wash up on the shore. regretfully, i guess i've got three
simple things to say. why me? why this now? why this way? overtone's ringing,
undertow's pulling away under a sky that is grey on sand that is grey by an
ocean that's grey. what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything
i want and still i want more. maybe some tiny shiny key will wash up on the
shore.

Subdivision lyrics - Ani Difranco

white people are so scared of black people. they bulldoze out to the
country, and put up houses on little loop-d-loop streets. and while america
gets its heart cut right out of its chest, the berlin wall still runs down
main street separating east side from west. and nothing is stirring, not even
a mouse, in the boarded up stores and the broken down houses, so they hang
colorful banners off all the street lamps just to prove they got no manners,
no mercy, and no sense. and i wonder then what it will take for my city to
rise. first we admit our mistakes and then we open our eyes. the ghost of old
buildings are haunting parking lots in the city of good neighbors that history
forgot. i remember the first time i saw someone lying on the cold street, i
thought, "i can't just walk past you, this can't just be true." but
i learned by example to just keep moving my feet. it's amazing the things that
we all learn to do. so we're led by denial like lambs to the slaughter,
serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water and the old farmroad's a
four-lane that leads to the mall and my dreams are all guillotines waiting to
fall, and i wonder then what it will take for my country to rise. first we
admit our mistakes and then we open our eyes. 'til nation's last taker
succumbs to one last dumb decision and america the beautiful is just one big
subdivision.

Old Old Song lyrics - Ani Difranco

i'll sing you a song that starts out descriptive
and locates a time and a place
like a dinner table where a whole family
is just sitting down to say grace
an old old song that moves into action
taking its sweet sweet time
and waits until we all say amen
again and again in rhyme

it's the story of a father and a mother
who battle each other over nothin'
with a couple of kids trying to figure
which way the plot's spinning
who's winning and who is bluffing

it's a story as common as a penny, son
it ain't really worth anything to anyone

poor little sore little song
that aches like a muscle each time that it moves
sad little song that you play
and you play and you play
and you play 'til you lose
while history is outside writing a recipe book
for every earthly pain
this song is inside finger painting dark swirls
again and again and they all look the same

cuz what if you come home from school one day
and you find your whole family's at war
and there's this ominous silence just waiting to be broken
and there's secret places for hiding underneath the floorboards
and everyone seems to be bracing
for the subharmonic thunder of the next bomb
and everyone seems to be waiting for the cops to bust in
with their guns drawn
at the bleak light of dawn

it's a story as common as a penny, son
i don't think it's worth anything to anyone

Sick Of Me lyrics - Ani Difranco

how sick of me must you be by now? while you're standing just outside of
what your pride will allow, always reaching into yourself to find a new way to
understand me. when i'm sure that there's no one else in the world that could
withstand me. yeah, the first person in your life to ever really matter is
saying the last thing that you want to hear. and you are listening hard through
the splintering shards of your life as it shatters. and you're standing firm
and you're staying close and you're seeing clear. i took to the stage with my
outrage in the bad old days when you were the "make me mad" guy. but
the songs they come out more slowly now that i am the bad guy. and i say, baby
i'm sorry that i am so crazy, i am astounded by your patience. but you say/
"believe or not baby, the joy you bring me still outweighs it."
yeah, the first
person in your life to ever really matter is saying the last thing that you
want to hear. and you are listening hard through the splintering shards of
your life as it shatters, and you're standing firm and you're staying close
and you're seeing clear. tell me how sick of me must you be by now?

School Night lyrics - Ani Difranco

she went over to his apartment
clutching her decision
and he said, did you come here to tell me goodbye?
so she built a skyscraper of procrastination
and then she leaned out the twenty-fifth floor window
of her reply
and she felt like an actress
just reading her lines
when she finally said
yes. it's really goodbye this time
and far below was the blacktop
and the tiny toy cars
and it all fell so fast
and it all fell so far

and she said:
you are a miracle but that is not all
you are also a stiff drink and i am on call
you are a party and i am a school night
and i'm lookin' for my door key
but you are my porch light

and you'll never know, dear
just how much i loved you
you'll probably think this was
just my big excuse
but i stand committed
to a love that came before you
and the fact that i adore you
is but one of my truths

what of the mother
whose house is in flames
and both of her children
are in their beds crying
and she loves them both
with the whole of her heart
but she knows she can only
carry one at a time?
she's choking on the smoke
of unthinkable choices
she is haunted by the voices
of so many desires
she's bent over from the business
of begging forgiveness
while frantically running around
putting out fires

but then what kind of scale
compares the weight of two beauties
the gravity of duties
or the ground speed of joy?
tell me what kind of gauge
can quantify elation?
what kind of equation
could i possibly employ?
and you'll never know, dear
just how much i loved you
you probably think this was
just my big excuse
but i stand committed
to a love that came before you
and the fact that i adore you
is just one of my truths

so i
i'm goin' home
to please the one i so love pleasing
and i don't expect
he'll have much sympathy for my grieving
but i guess that this is the price
that we pay for the privilege
of living for even a day
in a world with so many things
worth believing
in

Revelling lyrics - Ani Difranco

you were so in love
that it was all you could talk about
and i think i felt a little left out
you were on cloud 9 all the time
while i was levelling
i was wringing my hands and you were revelling

but then why shouldn't you?
it was such a beautiful thing to do

would that i could get me some
of your yum yum delirium
i could level off the ground that we stand on
but with you down on bended knee
always looking up at me
that feeling of standing up together is gone

and though i love you through all time and space
my love always seems to take second place

you were so in love
that it was all you could talk about
and i think i felt a little left out
you were on cloud 9 all the time
while i was levelling
i was wringing my hands and you were revelling

but then why shouldn't you?
it was such a beautiful thing to do

In Here lyrics - Ani Difranco

even when i look right at you
i always just see through
and i always just see new things
to admire about you

am i what you thought you were getting?
does this love we make make you proud?
does it look like it did on the menu
minus, of course, the little dark cloud?

'course when we signed up for forever
we had no idea it was in here
i guess always is all this and then some
i guess at least that much is clear
and whenever i look at you
you know, i always just see through
and i always just see new things
to admire about you

"To The Teeth" (1999)

To The Teeth lyrics - Ani Difranco

the sun is settin on the century
and we are armed to the teeth
we are all working together now
to make our lives mercifully brief
schoolkids keep trying to teach us
what guns are all about
confuse liberty with weaponry
and watch your kids act it out
every year now like Christmas
some boy gets the milk-fed sub-urban blues
reaches for the available arsenal
and saunters off to make the news
and women in the middle
are learning what poor women have always known
that the edge is closer than you think
when your men bring the guns home

look at where the profits are
that's how you'll find the source
of the big lie that you and i
both know so well
it the time it takes this cultural
death wish to run its course
they're gonna make a pretty penny
and then they're all going to hell
he said the chickens all come home to roost
yeah, malcom forecasted this flood
are we really gonna sleep through another century
while the rich profir off our blood?
true, it may take some doing
to see this undoing done
but in my humble opinion
here's what i suggest we do:

open fire on hollywood
open fire on MTV
open fire on NBC
and CBS and ABC
open fire on the NRA
and all the lies they told us
along the way
open fire on each weapons manufacturer
while he's giving head
to some republician senator

and if i hear one more time
about fool's rights
to his tools of rage
I'm gonna take all my friends
and I'm gonna move to Canada
and we're gonna die of old age

Soft Shoulder lyrics - Ani Difranco

I don't keep much stuff around
I value my portability
but I will say that I have saved
every letter you ever wrote to me
the one you left on my windsheild
outside of that little motel
is in the pocket of my old gigbag
from back when life was more soft shelled

letters littered with little lewd pictures
drawn by the ghost of Woddy Guthrie
who would use your big thick hand
just to draw one two for me

and I think of your letters as love letters
which is how I think of songs
in that it is the writing of them
that tend to carry us along
and I dance to one of your old tunes
with my true love on our wedding day
and your voice sang the way my heart would sing
if it finally knew just what to say

two people pulled over on the same night
to look up at the same stars
they both found their wheels were spinning
in a soft shoulder
when they got back into their cars
and they missed fate's appointed rendezvous
and then a whole lotta time went by
and finally they were done
worshipping the landscape
and they put down their hands
and moved into the sky

and they had barely said hello
and it was time to say goodbye
goodbye ............

Wish I May lyrics - Ani Difranco

i'm losing my love of adventure
i'm losing all respect
for me and myself tonight
i wonder what happens if i get to
the end of this tunnel
and there isn't a light
ive worn down the treads
on all of my tires
i've worn through the elbows
and the knees of my clothing
and i'm stumbling down
the gravel driveway of desire
trying not to wake up
my sleepy self-loathing

do you ever have that dream
when you open your mouth
and you try to scream
but you can't make a sound
that's everyday starting now
that's everyday starting now

dont tell me it's gonna be alright
you can't sell me on your optimism tonight
it's a stiff competition
to see who can stay up later
the stars or the street lights
and all they really want
is to be alone with the darkness
no more wish i may
no more wish i might

it takes a stiff upper lip
just to hold up my face
i gotta suck it up and savor
the taste of my own behavior
i am spinning with longing
faster then a roulette wheel
this is not who i meant to be
this is not how i meant to feel

i don't think i am strong enough
to do this much longer
god, i wish i was stronger
this song could never be long enough
to express every longing
god, i wish it was longer...

Freakshow lyrics - Ani Difranco

life in the circus ain't easy
but the folks on the outside don't know
the tent goes up and the tent comes down
and all that they see is the show
and the ladies on the horses look so pretty
and the lions are lookin real mad
and some of the clowns are happy
and some of the clowns are sad

but underneath
there's another expression
that the makeup isn't making
life under the big top
it's about freedom
it's about faking
there's an art to the laughter
there's a science
and there's a lot of love
and compliance

welcoem to the freakshow
here we go...

we live to hear the slack-jawed gasping
we live under a halo of held breath
and when the children raise up a giant shield
of laughter, it's like they're fending off death
and we can make somethig bigger
then anyone of us alone
and then the clowns will take off their makeup
and the people will go home

but life on the outside ain't easy
no sequins, no elephants,
no parading around
yeah, the tent goes up
and the tent comes down
and they're stuck in this fucking town

you need a lot of love and compliance

welcome to the freakshow
here we go

Going Once lyrics - Ani Difranco

Going once, going twice
Sold to the girl
Who ignored all the advice
Of all the people who knew better
She just stood there
On the front porch
Waiting for her will
To come and get her

She was packed
She had a suitcase
Full of noble intentions
She had a map
And a straight face
Hell bent on reinvention
And she was ready
For the lonely
She was in it for
It only

Going once, going twice
Down the road less taken
With her diary and her WD40
And her Swiss army knife
And her beer
And there was always
Someone there to say
Why don't you just stay
And hang your hat here

But she was packed
She had a suitcase
Full of bungles and near misses
And she was swinging
Through a jungle
Of last calls and first kisses
And she was learning
About please
About huge humilities

Then one day she looked around her
And everything up til then was showing
And she wondered: how did i get here
Without even knowing where i was going?
Now there's no getting out of this
And there is no going back
And it all seems so odd sometimes
And the odds all seem stacked

Going once, going twice
Sold to the girl
Who ignored all the advice
Of all the people who knew better
She just stood there
On the front porch
Waiting for her will
To come and get her

She was packed
She had a suitcase

She had a map
And a straight face

She was ready
For the lonely

She was in it for
It only

Hello Birmingham lyrics - Ani Difranco

hold me down
i am floating away
into the overcast skies
over my home town
on election day

what is it about birmingham?
what is it about buffalo?
did the hate filled wanna build bunkers
in your beautiful red earth
they want to build them
in our shiny white snow

now i've drawn closed the curtain
in this little booth where the truth has no place
to stand
and i am feeling oh so powerless
in this stupid booth with this useless
little lever in my hand
and outside my city is bracing
for the next killing thing
standing by the bridge and praying
for the next doctor
martin
luther
king

it was just one shot
through the kitchen window
it was just two miles from here
if you fly like a crow
a bullet came to visit a doctor
in his one safe place
a bullet ensuring the right to life
whizzed past his kid and his wife
and knocked his glasses
right off of his face

and the blood poured off the pulpit
yeah the blood poured down the picket lines
yeah, the hatred was immediate
and the vengence was divine
so they went and stuffed god
down the barrel of a gun
and after him
they stuffed his only son

hello birmingham
it's buffalo
i heard you had some trouble
down there again
and i'm just calling to let to know
that someone understands

i was once escorted
through the doors of a clinic
by a man in a bulletproof vest
and no bombs went off that day
so i am still here to say
birmingham
i'm wishing you all of my best
oh birmingham
i'm wishing you all of my best
oh birmingham
i'm wishing you all of my best
on this election day

Back Back Back lyrics - Ani Difranco

Back back back in the back of your mind
Are you learning an angry language,
Tell me boy boy boy are you tending to your joy
Or are you just letting it vanquish
Back back back in the dark of your mind
Where the eyes of your demons are gleamin
Are you mad mad mad
About the life you never had
Even when you are dreaming.

Who are these old old people
In these nursing homes
Scowling away at nothing
Like big rag dolls just cursing at the walls
And pulling out all of their stuffing
Every day is a door leading back to the core
Yes, old age will distill you
And if you're this this this full of bitterness now
Some day it will just fill you

When you sit right down in the middle of yourself
You're gonna wanna have a comfortable chair
So renovate your soul before you get too old
Cuz you're gonna be housebound there
When you're old you fold up like an envelope
And you mail yourself right inside
And there's nowhere to go
Except out real slow
Are you ready, boy, for that ride?

Your arrogance is gaining on you
And so is eternity
You better practice happiness
You better practice humility
You took the air, you took the time
You were fed and you were free
Now you'd better put some beauty back
While you got the energy
You'd better put some beauty back, boy
While you got the energy

Swing lyrics - Ani Difranco

She came to and her
Whole life was how she remembered it
She had a mouth full of fur
And she was laughing

She parked her hearse
Across three spaces posted for motorcycles only
And jumped out, shouting
"What the cus could make a nice girl
Like us feel so lonely?"

Are you weary as water
In a faucet left dripping
With an incessant sadness
Like a sad record skipping

And an ugly and ornery
And shadowy dread
Lurking like a troll under the bridge
Between your heart and your head

Please dumb blind kind sir
Lend little miss listless a bit of Christmas
She's been a real good girl
But now she's stuck here

The world is so little and still
Mysterious and ominous as ever before
Like an unmarked bottle full of pills
On the shelf right next to the ting
You were reaching for

Swing the groove 'round here
Where I can reach it
When I get my ass back on track
I'm gonna need it

Swing shift 'til I get the money
To buy me and my baby a moon full of honey
Then I'm gonna turn the nagging voices
Inside my head

That follow me to bed and say
You suck, blah, blah, blah

Carry You Around lyrics - Ani Difranco

How pleased can one
Sun setting make you
If you humble yourself
To it?
How grateful can you
Relay say that you are
Just to be here and live
Through it?
And when beauty asks a question
How often do you reply?
How often do you wonder
About life on the other side?
On the other side of sorrow
On the other side of rage
On the other side of ok
Ok at all
In any way
Imagine what loneliness
Will drive someone to do
Now multiply that times me
And multiply that times you
Now imagine what it would take to make
This all happen again
And just when you think you're gonna cry
Multiply that times ten
You
Are distracting me
From all other activities
And I know the fact of your presence
Will dominate my memory
Of this restaurant this table
This day and this town
Cuz I carry you, baby
I carry you around

Cloud Blood lyrics - Ani Difranco

ive been wondering what you meant
when you asked do you have a light?
ive been wondering where you went
when you left that party that night
cloud blood sweat smeared on the sky
its dawns roadkill
ive been driving since midnight
and im driving still

stop on the top of the ridge
just to feel the wind on my rand mcnally
then i feel the air grow cold
as i drift to the first blue of the valley
and youre wondering how far down you are on my
call back list
but you dont realize
everytime i find im by a phone the landscape shifts

every other song someones trying to write
angels enter the world
every ace every grace every near miss
every decent kiss by a pretty girl
she was an angel
she looked like an angel
and all of the angels did sing
and the angels were watching
and the angels were listening
and the angels were on hand to stand in for everything

you can call it magic
when a man pulls a rabbit out of a hat
but the reason I dont call you
is cuz I wonder if there isnt a better word than that
and you can call me crazy
but I think youre as lazy as white paint on the wall
and I know youll only speak to me in dial tones
if I call

its been way too long
since ive been behind the wheel
headlights guiding me right through the dark
I feel
driving, trying hard to resist
sleeps first kiss
everytime I have time to think
I think of this

da da da da
da da da
da da
da da da da
da da
da da da da
da da da
da da
da da da da
da da da

The Arrivals Gate lyrics - Ani Difranco

Gonna go out to the arrivals gate at the airport
And sit there all day
Watch people reuniting
Public affection so exciting
It even makes airports OK
Watching children run
With their arms outstretched
Just to throw those arms
Around their grandpa's neck
Watching lovers plant kisses
Old men to their misses
At their arrivals gate

Watching a mother
With a mother's smile
Don't tell me to move
I just wanna sit here for a while
I have determined
It's a sure cure for cancer
Watching excitement turn family dogs into dancers
At the arrivals gate

I got me a white bread sandwich
With some shredded lettuce
And I got me a ringside view
For my quaint little fetish

I just wanna drain my pink little heart of all its malice
And kick back for the afternoon
In this fluorescent palace

Everybody's in a hurry
Here in purgatory
Except for me
I'm where I need to be

At the arrivals gate

Providence lyrics - Ani Difranco

who knew
at this party that I
would walk in and I'd see you.
I guess now
we could just get drunk
yeah, that could be our excuse
you could slip
from out of nowhere
i could be there to catch your fall
we could laugh
at ourselves
and the writing that's on the wall

it's a narrow margin
just room enough for regret
in the inch and a half between
hey, how ya been?
and
can I kiss you yet?
so we talk, like
nervous neighbors over a tall fence
true love, but for the lack of providence

but I just got one more
thing to tell you

'cuz words are vitamins
and life is short
and I know when we get up
to the front office
We're gonna have to fill out
a full report
and the first question will be
what were you thinking?
and the next question will be
what did you say?
then they're gonna check to see
if the answers to one and two
matched up much
along the way

in the interest of poetry
and the cowboy movie
that's you and me
I'm back on the horse now
and I am riding
I am striding so effortlessly
what I mean is
it's late
much to late for us
and I'm fixing to go home
with just my conscious
and a bitter sense of irony
as my chaperone

true love, but for the lack of providence.

I Know This Bar lyrics - Ani Difranco

I know this bar
With a jukebox full of medicine
And christmas lights blinking
Around a clouded mirror
Its not that far
From Voelkers Bowling alley
Just go up there and turn right
Its about 3 blocks from here

You'll probably find grace
Her shift starts at happy hour
She's got this sweet face
Easy as tea leaves to read
You gotta know what to look for
You gotta know what's there to find
But I guess you don't really know her
So nevermind

I used to hang out a lot around there
In that part of town
Where all the white kids
still have feathered hair

I know this song
With this one really killer line
I don't remember it exactly
But it slays me everytime
Its on the jukebox there
Number 5403
Go put that song on for me won't you
And make Gracie think of me

"Up Up Up Up Up Up" (1999)

'Tis Of Thee lyrics - Ani Difranco

'tis of thee

they caught the last poor man
on a poor man's vacation
they cuffed him and confiscated his stuff
they dragged his black ass down to the station
and said, ok, the streets are safe now
all your pretty white children can come out and see spot run
and they came out of their houses
and they looked around
but they didn't see no one

my country 'tis of thee
to take swings at each other on the talkshow tv
why don't you just go ahead and turn off the sun
cuz we'll never live long enough
to undo everything they've done to you
undo everything they've done to you

above 96th street
they're handing out smallpox blankets so people don't freeze
the old dogs have got a new trick
it's called criminalize the symptoms
while you spread the disease
and i hold on hard to something
between my teeth when i'm sleeping
i wake up and my jaw aches
and the earth is full of earthquakes

my country 'tis of thee
To take shots at each other on prime time tv
why don't you just go ahead and turn off the sun
cuz we'll never live long enough
to undo everything they've done to you
undo everything they've done to you

they caught the last poor man
flying away in a shiny red cape
they took him down to the station
and they said, boy, you should've known better
than to try to escape
i ran away with the circus
cuz there's still some honest work left for bearded ladies
since they put everyone in jail
except the cleavers and the bradys

my country 'tis of thee
to take swings at each other on the talkshow tv
why don't you just go ahead and turn off the sun
cuz we'll never live long enough
to undo everything they've done to you
undo everything they've done to you

Virtue lyrics - Ani Difranco

virtue is relative at best
there's nothing worse than a sunset
when you're driving due west
and i'm afraid that my love
is gonna come up short
there is no there there
i guess i'm scared
cuz i want to have good news to report
every time i come up for air

now i'm cruising through a chromakey blue sky
and i know that in an hour or three
the sun is gonna be in my eyes
and i know that sometimes all i can see
is how i feel
like the whole world is on the other side
of a dirty windshield
and i'm tryin to see through the glare
yes i'm struggling just to see what's there

the one person who really knows me best
says i'm like a cat
yeah the kind of cat that you just can't pick up
and throw into your lap
no, the kind that doesn't mind being held
only when its her idea
yeah, the kind that feels what she decides to feel
when she is good and ready to feel it

and now i am prowling through the backyard
and i am hiding under the car
i have gotten out of everything
ive gotten into so far
i eat when i am hungry
and i travel alone
and just outside the glow of the house
is where i feel most at home

but in the window you sometimes appear
and your music is faint in my ears