Andrew Calhoun - A Seat In the Mezzanine

A Seat In the Mezzanine

This was a bunch of stray couplets, they were supposed to be in different songs but all fell in together, written a month or so before I got out of high school.

Well I'd ask her for coffee or a walk in the rain,
But what if she was into Jesus, what is she was strange?
Strange tunes playing in my head,
Like a caravan of corpses, like a song of the dead
One, two, buckle my shoe
The big parade was the end of you
Whiskey bottles all in a row
I mowed that lawn myself, you know
I grew up in a moldy cave,
Listening to brilliance rave
Life's annoying, blue and bleak,
Sitting on the stairs in the middle of the week
Close your eyes, say holy grace
Then stuff them strawberries in your face
Life is boring, life is hard
Do you mind if I cut across your backyard?
Sweat your morning, squeeze your death,
Clutch your stomach, fetch your breath
Wake at 5 A.M., hell, it's a cinch
Just give yourself a Doberman pinch
People fade from me like smoke
People smother in a hollow joke
I've traveled in buses and I've traveled in tears
And I'm bound to lose a screw somewhere
There once was a man who never understood
That laughter isn't happy, and gossip isn't good
He wanted my time, but he wouldn't say why
He said, "I want to drag out all the seaweed, and spread it out to dry."

Oh-oh-oh, what do you do
In an incubator, in a Irish stew
How do you expect me to talk
When I'm stirring up the batter, and listening to Bach?
Once there were eight, now there's only seven
A stomach-break angel was murdered in heaven
The sun shone down, and clung to eleven lies
You fry my moments, and you swallow my days
You crucify me with cliches
There's a rain on the waves, a storm on the beach,
I know the Bible, listen to me preach
It's a mystery to me how I got so wet
Give me a towel to wipe away the water and the sweat
Life is scary, life is huge
Give me some kind of refuge
Give me some kind of refuge

I was working all night, I was working all day
So I slept right through the matinee
You'll be safe, you'll stay clean
If you can get a seat in the mezzanine
In the forest, I sit and pine
Falling in love is a habit of mine
You got me all wrong, I'm afraid
I didn't come to get stood up, I came to get laid
I didn't come to get swallowed, I came to get drunk
The drain backed up and the soldier sunk
Like reason to the mind of chaos
Everything turns silly in the face of hate
With malice toward nurses, with malice toward nuns
I follow a curse for the sake of some puns
I've got to punch to touch, I've got to hurt to feel
I've got to kill somebody to make them real

Oh-oh-oh, what do you do
In an incubator, in a Irish stew
How do you expect me to talk
When I'm stirring up the batter, and listening to Bach?
Once there were eight, now there's only seven
A stomach-break angel was murdered in heaven
The sun shone down, and clung to eleven lies
You fry my moments, and you swallow my days
You crucify me with cliches
There's a rain on the waves, a storm on the beach,
I know the Bible, listen to me preach
It's a mystery to me how I got so wet
Give me a towel to wipe away the water and the sweat
Life is scary, life is huge
Give me some kind of refuge
Give me some kind of refuge