I know that I always hate it when people post lyrics and don’t explain a thing about why they are, but I understand that, sometimes, it’s all you have the power to do. With that …
The sidewalk bends where your house ends
Like the neighborhood is on its knees
You’re surrounded by a chain-link fence
That keeps me out but lets me seeWell I come by most every night
The shutters pounding in the breeze
A clothesline strung like paper kites
That blow my words right back at meBut someday when my heart exhales
I’ll tell you everything
These sweet words spilling all about us
I’ll say please please be with me
And I’ll breathe so easily
But instead I’m turning blue
I look at you
And keep my stupid mouth shutThe hall light streams out through the screens
And the shadows capture me in webs
Just tangled up in what I’ve seen
And every word I have not said
I have not saidCuz the sidewalk bends where your house ends
Like the neighborhood is on its knees
–Hem’s “Stupid Mouth Shut” from Rabbit Songs; written by Dan Messe

6 Comments
Oh my, Geof.
That’s gorgeous.
Gorgeous and heart-breaking.
Brendan Milburn did a neat cover of this song. Remind me on Tuesday and I’ll drag it out for you.
What the crap? People are covering Hem songs already?
I get the feeling Brendan’s a friend of theirs, since he did this back in 1998 (!).
I reckon so.