Come Up Full (2008)

Click a song title to view its lyrics …

Ready

Perhaps the years of grieving have left me
I think the summer is upon us
The cars roll into Cedar Grove under the bright June sun
But I, I am not among them now
Maybe I’m ready
I run at night down beside the river
The lanterns shine red from the graves
No more lonely kitchen tables
No more sorrow picking at my brain
No I belong to the day now
Maybe I’m ready
The trolley screams and lurches towards the city
And I stare at my own eyes in the glass and I smile to think
How far I’ve come from the dull roar of loss
And everything seems quiet now
I can hear the ice cream truck one street over
June weeds lunge up past the railing
All my socks have worn holes
From this long winter and this longer spring
But I don’t have to wear them anymore
Maybe I’m ready

Home

I won’t tell you where I’ve been
Only that it’s so good to be home
It’s possible to go so far down
As some of you might already know
Did you go there too?

I won’t tell you what I’ve seen
Only that this world can be so mean
Brave souls shuffling up and down the halls
No one visits no one even calls
Did you wait there too?

But I’ve been getting better these days
And I’ve been sleeping in my own bed again
And I’ve been dreaming in full color
Goodbye sorrow I’ve found another

I won’t tell you what I would’ve done
If not for my dearest ones
Chemistry can sorta leave you in the lurch
I’m just glad they found a cure
Did you find one too?

But if the world should really pale
Dark night of the soul is real
Let me offer I’ve been there
And one day that darkness clears

Whole Bird

You live in the world I live in oh to my relief
I spend so much time feeling on the other side
Of some kind of bullet proof glass wishing I could fit
Into the normal every day, the nine to five neighborhood

Today a feather in the post a token of the wing
Of the greater one it came from
And nothing needs to be spoken

I don’t need the whole bird, just a feather will do
Just a feather will do
From you

Dog puking woke me early and I had to laugh
Glad to be up early even cleaning up this mess
Blue silver morning coming through the window blinds
Put your record on and then oh I was flying

I didn’t meet you too late
I didn’t meet you too early
I have known you all along

Like a person with amnesia I’ve been gathering up the clues
What is my work in this life and who do I love
Seems we come in constellations, oh from life to life
There’s a sharing of the heat and of the wisdom over time

Good Day To Die

Today would be a good day to die
Don’t get me wrong I adore this life
But as they check the engine on this little tiny plane
I think my God I wouldn’t change a single thing

If today the propeller should just fall into the sea
I’d go tumbling down with a certain kind of peace
Pretty lady showing us the life vest
Doesn’t scare me much the thought of using this

Today would be a good day to die

I’d like another sixty years if something wills it so
Make a lot of music and some babies too
But if I should cross, over on this ride
I know they’d greet me there on the other side
Grandmother meet me on the other side

Today would be a good day to die
Oh….

Spent the night with a new lover in my bed
Good the things we get to keep only for an instant
I’m not saying this life hasn’t also hurt me so
Always this awkwardness it makes me grow

This year my highs have been higher
I’ve reached the lowest kind of low
Then I fell through the bottom and sorta
Started to float
What’s this bird in my chest?
What’s this weight in my arms?
When I think of your hands it makes me tremble some

America (Enough)

If there’s noise enough it turns back to silence
If there’s crowd enough turns back to solitude
If there’s pain enough it turns to something
Something almost bright, oh something almost bright

I’ve been wanting to tell you the way that the planes
Circling down cross the water look like a string of falling lights

If there’s time enough there’s no such thing as an hour
If there’s love enough the rest of this won’t even matter
On the days when it’s not hard it can be easy
Easy being alive, easy being alive

I’ve been wanting to tell you the way that the ice
On the lake sounds like thunder or guns
In the middle of the night
America, America

Find it fast, find it cheap
If your neighbor won’t give it, take it for free
Oh, easy chair, big screen t.v.
Oh, hurry hurry it’s the American dream

If there’s comfort enough it turns back to sorrow
If there’s money enough it turns back to paper
If there’s killing enough we all know nothing
Nothing ever can be won
No nothing ever can be won

I’ve been wanting to tell you the way the balloon
Seemed to skate on the pond neither falling nor floating away
America, America

Seeing Stars

Bugs out on the water, make it look like rain
Leaves on every tree, once again turning
Summer’s past but it’s never far
If you look real close you might see scars
But me, yeah me I’m only seeing stars

Evening light, on a gravel path
I could be scared but I’ve had enough of that
Oh, big old moon, rising up
Even in this light you might see scars
But me, yeah me I’m only seeing stars

When they take everything
And you’ve got nothing left
A deer in the headlights in your hospital bed
Just dreaming of a simple life
A gentle man, a solid night
Me and the dog, down at the reservoir
If you look real close you might see scars
But me, yeah me I’m only seeing stars
Oh…

Seems all your songs are about leaving
Seems both your hands are about now
Geese up in the sky, home through the dark
If you look real close you might see scars
But me, yeah me I’m only seeing stars

I’d Like To Know

I’d like to know someone
Who’s known months without sun
I’d like to know someone
Who’s learned how to sleep
When the night’s still bright
I’d like to know someone
Who comes from the mountains
Like a wall against my waves
I’d like to know someone
Who knows the quiet time
After the song is sung

Cause I’m quick to love
Quicker to tire
I’m looking for a slower burn
A better kind of fire

I’d like to know someone
With music in their lungs
I’d like to know someone
Who lets stuff off the hook
Throw back the little ones

And when you’re not afraid to stay
I won’t be afraid of morning
And when you’re not afraid to say
I’ll never be afraid, to listen

I’d like to know someone
Who knows I came undone once
I’d like to know someone
Who knows deep where they come from

Climbing Mountains

Dreamt last night I was climbing mountains
Way beyond the earth’s strange pull
Dreamt last night I was climbing mountains
Way beyond love’s fierce hold

Dreamt last night I was climbing mountains
Way beyond the sad remains
Of this wild wild world that was never ours
That somehow we had the need to claim
Nothing but the wind and sky
And this impulse to survive

But when dark falls behind windows
See these tired eyes bathed in blue light
Watch the world turn watch the heart find
Comfort alone won’t keep us alive

Dreamt last night of your Irish eyes
Of your teeth shining in the dark when you smile
Of your solitude and your even keel
Of your steady gate and the loss that you feel
Nothing but the love remains
The rest it seems to always fade

But when dark falls behind windows
See these tired eyes bathed in blue light
Watch the world turn watch the heart find
Comfort alone won’t keep us
Keep us
Imagine a whole country asleep at the wheel
Inventing so many new ways to avoid what we feel

But when dark falls….
Dark falls, windows, tired eyes, blue light
Dreamt last night I was climbing mountains

Somewhere

Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue …
Little bird outside my locked window in full song
He knows no despair or laughter there
For him the day is one moment long
One moment long

I have seen the beggar in me
Tried to look her way and smile
As she lifted up her head from her newspaper bed
Even the smell made me reel
What makes you real?

Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
Birds fly over the rainbow

Oh the lights have dimmed
One girl in a hospital bed
The stage is also gone
And the nights can take so long

Somewhere over the rainbow…

I’ve been to the water thinking of Virginia
With a weight clutched in each hand
What with the richness of the dark
The night owl calling
I could not stay there long, stay there long

Oh somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then oh why can’t I?

Song for Jeffrey Lucey

You would’ve made a great dad
If you’d lived that long
Your eyes are warm and kind on the evening news
There was a big celebration when you walked of that bus
With all your limbs intact we thought you’d made it back to us
And no one knew, what you’d been made to do over there

You were almost twenty-two when they shipped you out
With the sixth motor transport battalion
Operation Freedom, also known as the war
No place for a good kid just trying to pay for school

And no one knew, what you’d be made to do over there

Yellow ribbons still fluttering from the trees beside the house
Memory was a cancer that you could not live without
But you could not live with it
Oh… no you could not live with it

In the dark you held your flashlight, still listening for spiders
In the days you drank alone in your old room
Haunted always by the voices, by the jingling of the tags
Holding on to one little corner of that flag

And no one knew…

Yellow ribbons still fluttering from the trees beside the house
Made a pillow for your head and they laid you down
Oh they laid you down
Oh… oh they laid you down

And no one knew
What you’d been made to do
And all there love couldn’t keep you

Come Up Full

Rose hips starfish periwinkles and stones
Clear evenings and stars and stars and stars
You bring me words when I need them
And none when I don’t, none when I don’t

Sea heather and sea glass down the winding road to the lighthouse
And the bells on the buoys ring and ring and ring
Across the harbor in the morning
Through our windows at night

So go drag your boat to the water
Just when you swear it off those nets are gonna
Come up full

Salt on our skin, wind in our hair
Sun on our shoulders everywhere
Blue of the water and the humming humming humming
Of the men in the morning, checking their catch

So go…

At night the fire replaces the sun
Just as one good dream’s replaced by another one

The feel of you when I turn in the dark
All the little pebbles gone from my heart
I’ll keep the red on my right, the green the green the green
On my left this evening just as you said

So go…

Can You Tell Me

Two times is lucky third time’s a charm
Call it what you will, destiny, I’m so glad to see your face
I looked for you every time a bus went by
I looked for you, Park street, every time a train arrived

You say it’s written in the stars
Can you tell me what they say?
Can you tell me what they say?

Tell me your story I’ll tell you mine
Did you love her so well, oh did you try
Things don’t work out sometimes
I thought of you every time I walked those stairs
I thought of you in that little park
Down in Harvard Square

You say its written in the stars…

Bells are ringing down town
I’ll pick you up and we’ll drive around
I think they hung those lights up just for us
Feels like Christmas not just because
Because it is, because it is

Wherever we are, it’s where I wanna be
Everything looks beautiful
The North End, the whole damn city
You say it’s written in the stars
Can you tell me what they say
Can you tell me what they say

Two times is lucky, third time’s a charm

All songs written by Meg Hutchinson © 2004-2007, LRH Music/ASCAP. All rights reserved.

All Songs by Meg Hutchinson. © Meg Hutchison/LRH Music (ASCAP) All Rights Reserved. Excerpts from song lyrics may be used by press and media for promotion of Meg Hutchinson’s music. Credit should always be clearly stated. When in doubt, contact us at info @ meghutchinson.com