“Tundra” is an outtake from the album “Sometimes You Hurt The Ones You Hate”. Recorded by Alex Bush at Sonikwire Studios, Irvine, California, United States of America. Acoustic guitar and vocals by Damien Jurado. Electric guitar, bass guitar, and soundscapes by Josh Gordon.
Tundra
I sat in the frozen tundra
Waiting for my spring
Wanting every eye to open
Bribing every bird to sing
Pushing in reverse
So my brakes
Would soon release
Keeping life in motion
For the kids and the thieves
From a grocery store in Davis
I stood questioning my plight
Looking for an out
As I pleaded for my life
My future falling heavy
On the eyelids of the tired
Hoping you’d forgive me
For throwing you the knife
I threw my caution to the sea
To get staggering results
Hated everyone I spoke with
And the journeys they were on
Turned off every jukebox
That played your song
On repeat
I am leading you astray
Through the corridors of my mind
Where the simple tune is prison
And your shackled to the rhyme
Advertising vacancy
Promising good times
The fireworks are over
And your left with only sky
*just the sky
I am questioning your absence
In a time you find contempt
Somehow loyal to the jesters
Who now laugh at your expense
They are selling off your clothing
They are paying off your rent
Weighing you down with
The cross they have sent
They are not your friends and lovers
Who stand eagerly awaiting
Filling every ashtray
With the embers contemplating
Looking at a hillside
To a forest that is wailing
Dying to start over
So it prays that it stops raining
Your phone call was declined
Your song request denied
Singing to yourself
At the end of every line
The stanza not appropriate
For these so called tougher times
The waters far receding
Where waves can never climb
Now they’re calling for the lifeboats
Navigated telepathically
Distracted by the snow geese
Flying from the Skagit Valley
I am hidden, and content
So long the land surrounds me
Turned away from doorways
As I wish I were not leaving you again
