Mary Chapin Carpenter

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"Fading Away"

"Fading Away"



You are fading away in pieces and parts
Like old china and glass, in fragments and shards
Moment by moment, a day at a time
By the side of the road, in the dark of the night

You are leaving me here like the seasons will do
Leaving nothing behind but I know it was you
That walked where I walk now, that stood where I stand
Some phantom performing a strange sleight of hand

And the places I see are returning once more
To the places I knew them to be long before
They merged with your laugh
They locked with your eyes
I have almost regained them,
Along with my stride

You are turning to nothing like ash off a fire
As it rises and floats up higher and higher
As the flame slowly dies and the fire turns cold
Like the color of sky the higher you go

And the world that I see is returning once more
To the world that I knew it be long before
It had merged with your laugh
It had locked with your eyes
I’ve been letting it go, with all my goodbyes

You are blurring like memory and falling like dust
On old wedding bouquets, the roses and rust
On the wheel, on the mantle,
In the quiet of day
You are vanishing slowly
You are fading away
 
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"Family Hands"

"Family Hands"



Last Sunday we got in the car and we drove
To the town you were raised in, your boyhood home
The trees were just turning, up on the ridge
And this was your valley when you were a kid
You showed me the railroad that your daddy worked on
As we neared the old house where your granny lives on
She's nearing ninety years now, with her daughters by her side
Who tend the places in the heart where loneliness can hide

Raised by the women who are stronger than you know
A patchwork quilt of memory only women could have sewn
The threads were stitched by family hands, protected from the moth
By your mother...and her mother, the weavers of your cloth

Your grandmother owned a gun in 1932
When times were bad just everywhere, you said she used it too
And the life and times of everyone are traced inside their palms
Her skin may be so weathered, but her grip is still so strong
And I see your eyes belong to her and too your mama too
A slice of Virginia sky, the clearest shade of blue

Raised by the women who are stronger than you know
A patchwork quilt of memory only women could have sewn
The threads were stitched by family hands, protected from the moth
By your mother...and her mother, the weavers of your cloth

And a rich man you might never be, they'd love you just the same
They've handed down so much to you besides your Christian name
And the spoken word won't heal you like the laying on of hands
Belonging to the ones who raised you to a man

Raised by the women who are stronger than you know
A patchwork quilt of memory only women could have sewn
The threads were stitched by family hands, protected from the moth
By your mother...and her mother, the weavers of your cloth
 
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"Girls Like Me"

"Girls Like Me"



Girls like me aren't hard to find
We grow like roses on the vine
We wear our hearts on our sleeves
You probably know a girl like me.

We live alone and in our heads
We eat standing up or in our beds
Guilt and fear merge easily
In the quiet souls of girls like me

And loneliness is like a cold,
Common and no cure we're told
We take to bed per chance to dream
In the blue light of the TV screen.

Girls like me like summer light
And cold beer on a summer night
And boys who aren't afraid of what they see
Inside the eyes of girls like me

And hopefulness is like a drug
It makes a girl believe in love
And if somehow you love us back
You think there's something wrong with that

Girls like me aren't hard to trust
Your deepest secret's safe with us
And when it's time to set you free
You can always count on girls like me

It's good to know a girl like me
You used to love a girl like me
 
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"Going Out Tonight"

"Going Out Tonight"



I'm going out tonight to find myself a friend
I need a welcome smile and the grasp of an open hand
Gonna sit for hours in a small dark place, catch up with a long lost face
And talk about how long it's really been

I'm going out tonight with perfume on my wrist
I'm need to find someone to show me what I've missed
And when I see that someone sittin' there, gonna tell your memory I don't care
If he offers something more than just a kiss

Underneath the moon so bright, I wanna fall tonight
Beneath a spell
Underneath the sky so clear, I wanna find someone waiting there
Who used to know me well

I'm going out tonight without a chaperone
I'm gonna leave that meddling heart of mine at home
'Cause it don't like crowds or closing time, neon blues or pickup lines
It makes me spend my Friday nights alone

Underneath the moon so bright
Underneath the sky so clear
I'm gonna tell myself that someone I adore
Is the one I'm with, ain't that what friends are for
'Cause my empty arms are open wide; I'm long on spite, and short on pride
And the old way isn't working anymore

I'm going out tonight to find myself a friend
 
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"Goodbye Again"

"Goodbye Again"



Every night she sleeps alone
And by her bed she puts the phone
And every morning after that
She takes the phone and puts it back

He's got a wife back home and three kids up and grown
But these are things that go unsaid
He might call her from the road just in time to say hello
And goodbye again

She keeps his picture tucked away
She thinks she'll have it framed one day
And maybe he'll come see it there
Hanging by her rocking chair

In a corner of her room on a Sunday afternoon
When all the world is dull and gray
She might close her eyes and sit, rocking gently for a bit
Till all the bad thoughts go away

Back when children played their games
London Bridge and Jesse James
She captured flags, she bounced the ball
And every time, she beat them all

And now she comes home to a cat in a three-room walk-up flat
And plays a game of solitaire
Well she made a fist last night, and she broke the hallway light
And the pieces scattered everywhere

You see, he's got a wife back home and three kids up and grown
But these are things that go unsaid
He might call her from the road just in time to say hello
And goodbye again
 
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"Goodnight America"

"Goodnight America"



I'm standing at a traffic light somewhere in West L.A.
Waiting for the sign to change then I'll be on my way
The noise, the heat, the crush of cars just robs me of my nerve
And someone yells and blasts their horn and pins me to the curb

I'm a stranger here
No one you would know
My ship has not come in
But I keep hoping though

And I keep looking past
The sun that sets above
Saying to myself
Goodnight America

And I'm driving into Houston on a rain slicked Texas road
Land so flat and sky so dark I say a prayer to float
Should all at once the Sanasito surge beyond it's banks
Like Noah reaching higher ground I'd offer up my thanks

Cause I'm a stranger here
No one you would know
I'm just passing through
I am therefore I go

The moon rose in the east
But now it's right above
As I say aloud
Goodnight America

Midnight,
It's hard to see the stars out on a highway near Atlanta
Full of strip malls and used cars

First light,
Just roll your window down
And smell the salty air perfume of Charleston town

I'm looking with a pilgrim's eyes upon some promised land
And dreaming with my heart outstretched as if it were my hand
And I'll hit the cross Bronx just in time to beat the rush hour lock
I've got no clue what time it is from this world's busted clock

I'm a stranger here
No one you would know
I'm from somewhere else
Well isn't everybody though

I don't know where I'll be
When the sun comes up
Until then, sweet dreams
Goodnight America
 
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"Grand Central Station"

"Grand Central Station"



Got my work clothes on for love, sweat and dirt.
All this Holy dust upon my face an' shirt.
Headin' uptown now, just as the shifts are changin',
To Grand Central Station.

I got my lunch box, got my hard hat in my hand.
I ain't no hero, mister, just a workin' man.
An' all these voices keep on askin' me to take them,
To Grand Central Station.
Grand Central Station.

I wanna stand beneath the clock just one more time.
Wanna wait on the platform for the Hudson line.
I guess you're never really all alone, or too far from the pull of home,
An' the stars upon that painted dome still shine.

I paid my way out on the 42nd Street.
I lit a cigarette an' stared down at my feet.
Imagined all the ones that ever stood here waitin',
At Grand Central Station.
Grand Central Station.

And now Hercules is starin' down at me.
Next to him's Minerva an' Mercury.
Well, I nod to them an' start my crawl, flyers coverin' every wall:
Faces of the missing are all I see.

Tomorrow, I'll be back there, workin' on the pile.
Going in, comin' out, single file.
Before my job is done, there's one more trip I'm makin',
To Grand Central Station.
Grand Central Station.

Grand Central Station.
Grand Central Station.
 
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"Grow Old With Me"

"Grow Old With Me"



Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be
When our time has come
We will be as one
God bless our love
God bless our love
Grow old along with me
Two branches of one tree
Face the setting sun
When the day is done
God bless our love
God bless our love
Spending our lives together
Man and wife together
World without end
World without end
Grow old along with me
Whatever fate decrees
We will see it through
For our love is true
God bless our love
God bless our love
 
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"Halley Came To Jackson"

"Halley Came To Jackson"



Late one night when the wind was still
Daddy brought the baby to the window sill
To see a bit of heaven shoot across the sky
The one and only time Daddy saw it fly

It came from the east just as bright as a torch
The neighbors had a party on their porch
Daddy rocked the baby, Mother said "amen"
When Halley came to visit in nineteen ten

Now back then Jackson was a real small town
And it's not every night a comet comes around
It was almost eighty years since its last time through
So I bet your mother would've said "amen" too

As its tail stretched out like a stardust streak
The papers wrote about it every day for a week
They wondered where it's going and where it's been
When Halley came to Jackson in 1910

Now Daddy told the baby sleeping in his arms
To dream a little dream of a comet's charms
And he made a little wish as she slept so sound
In nineteen eighty-six that wish came 'round

It came from the east, just as bright as a torch
She saw it in the sky from her daddy's porch
As heavenly sent as it was back then
When Halley came to Jackson in nineteen ten
Late one night when the wind was still
 
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"He Thinks He'll Keep Her"

"He Thinks He'll Keep Her"



She makes his coffee, she makes his bed
She does the laundry, she keeps him fed
When she was twenty-one she wore her mother's lace
She said "forever" with a smile upon her face
She does the car-pool, she PTAs
Doctors and dentists, she drives all day
When she was twenty-nine she delivered number three
And every Christmas card showed a perfect family
Everything runs right on time, years of practice and design
Spit and polish till it shines. He thinks he'll keep her
Everything is so benign, safest place you'll ever find
God forbid you change your mind. He thinks he'll keep her
She packs his suitcase, she sits and waits
With no expression upon her face
When she was thirty-six she met him at their door
She said I'm sorry, I don't love you anymore
Everything runs right on time, years of practice and design
Spit and polish till it shines. He thinks he'll keep her
Everything is so benign, safest place you'll ever find
God forbid you change your mind. He thinks he'll keep her
For fifteen years she had a job and not one raise in pay
Now she's in the typing pool at minimum wage
Everything runs right on time, years of practice and design
Spit and polish till it shines. He thinks he'll keep her
Everything is so benign, safest place you'll ever find
At least until you change your mind. He thinks he'll keep her
 
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