Leave a Light On  - Sara Milonovich (ASCAP)

The stars have long drawn the curtains closed on this town

The shops are all shuttered and streetlights are coming on

Give me a bouquet of burning tobacco and watery asphalt

Peek out from under the overhang by the sidewalk

            Now we’re burning the fogbanks down

            As a sleepless sparrow cries for the dawn

            Waits for the stars to come on

 The gutters are flooding a river of hollowed-out eyes

One more holiday stolen away- hidden beneath all the signs

I studied the weave of the carpet as we tried to talk

We studied the games of the market, but the damn deck’s stacked up all wrong

            Try not to wish you’d never known

            Pieces of letterhead paving the roads of

            Cold cities of steel and stone

 We’re lending the outside outrage some armchair support

With a sympathetic wave, or a streetlight symphony of horns

Traffic’s alright on the highway to heaven-knows-where (devil may care)

But there’s blood and fur on the shoulder and the guardrail’s gone out there

            Why wonder just where it went wrong

            It’s a longer view when the leaves are all gone

            Wait for the clouds to move on

             Look up while the sun’s going down

            This time of year it gets dark early on

            Remember to leave a light on

High Tension Wire - Sara Milonovich (ASCAP)

 I’m a high-tension wire, tinder waiting for the fire

Bite the bullet; bite my tongue, tired of preaching to the choir

Unrest up in the atmosphere even though the sky is moonshine clear

Couldn’t save the forest for the trees- now we’re staring at the underside of leaves

         There's a hot breeze coming through the cracks

         Rattling the rags of the banners of the past

        Why are we still standing, looking down?

        Look around

You drew your lines on pieces of printed paper

Faces of politicians, idols and pontificators

Singing “Praise the Lord”, and pass the blame to another generation

Playing possum, but the game’s up- you’ve run out of road it’s time to stop and listen

         There's a hot breeze coming through the cracks

        Can’t help but feel the ghost of Joe breathing down our backs

        The rotten fruit, the bitter truth has hit the ground

         Look around

 Shadow of a feathered thing slowly disappearing

Slinking round the corner of this season of affliction

 I see you from the shores of this busted river city

Sprawled out on the bank like a long-dead corpse someone forgot to bury

Enjoy your view of revolution from a safe, televised distance

Think it’s time we stop straddling and start cutting fences

         There's a hot breeze coming through the cracks

         Looking for a chance to take a little of it back

         Shatter all our silence into sound

         Look around

Scarecrow  - Sara Milonovich (ASCAP)

Scarecrow, raven perched upon your shoulder

Don't you know it's getting colder? Sun's gone down

Scarecrow, stuffing's fallen on the ground

Wish that you would come around any minute, any day now

            But you look up at the sky

           Try to figure out how to fly into thin air

           But it's nothing more than here

           Just a place where thunder goes and dreams can disappear

 Scarecrow, don't think that I don't know the feeling

Wasting all your pretty years believing they're all over

Scarecrow, don't listen to what the ragpickers say

They are their neighbors' undertakers- stay away, stay away

            <repeat chorus>

Scarecrow, thought we said we'd paint this town

Still waiting to light the world on fire, now it's burning, burning down

Scarecrow, we were always both the same

Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane - why'd you have to go and change?

Once Were the Pines  - Sara Milonovich (ASCAP)

The last rays of sunset were swallowed in smoke

And the cracks in the canyons remind us we've broken down long time now

The answer's behind these dark clouds

But there's more than one ending to drought

            So tear me up like the letters we never could write

           Like trying to hold the horizon

           Let me go with the wildfires that light up the night

           Torches that once were the pines, but it's all right

 The first days of summer we laughed at the dawn

Broke a new trail as we hid from the high desert sun all around

We carved out our notions of love

In the limbs of the pines up above

            <repeat chorus>

But the rains kept us waiting for them to return

'Til the scrub brush we left out forgotten started to burn down slow

Have the seeds all been smothered below?

Or just waiting for fire to grow?

             <repeat chorus>

Newsprint  - Sara Milonovich (ASCAP)

It isn't that cold out yet but there's an edge to the weather

The scenery's black and white newsprint, wish the headlines were better

And I wish we saw it coming instead of just running right back into the fire

We lit long before this season, long before reason rained on down and froze upon the ground

The sidewalk's a patchwork of salty snow and the sunshine doesn't seem to matter

And the leftover dregs of last night's champagne have already changed to vinegar

So I guess the party's over and now we're all sober, choking on every promise you broke

But you never hear the lies you hold dear, the same ones you say to turn the blame away

You talk about changes and compromise, but you never say you're sorry

You keep on ruining our chances to make things right, you just smile and turn a blind eye

Now you're living on borrowed time, passing 'round borrowed dimes, never returning the good faith we gave you

You keep waiting for the ice to melt but will you just wait until it's all gone for good or for ill?

West of Eden  - Sara Milonovich (ASCAP)

Driving, dodging the deer and the drunks

Past foundations left in the floodplain so long

Still there waiting where the water put them down

Is it just flotsam? Or one more farm gone?

            Who do you blame? The Corps of Engineers?

           Or the wind and the rain and the way that they came out of nowhere?

           Quench the thirsty downtown, we'll never know the reason

           They left us here west of Eden waiting to drown

Remember the fields in afternoons of amber?

Now they're buried and brown and I feel like a foreign-lander

Nothing else to do but stare, just a helpless bystander

Got to stand up for something, better be your neighbor

            <repeat chorus>

Neon eye's focused on wildfires now

Long since forgotten the lead lining inside the clouds

Nothing left to do but wear it with pride as a shroud

It's a bitter drink, just swallow it down

The grass has grown up to hide the worst of the scars

The money's dried up with the mud in the yard

Well we sang, "Goodnight", but we're still waiting for the stars

Could have cut out and run but we just give up too hard

             <repeat chorus>