David Pascoe

I’m not your ordinary florist
I pick my flowers from the ground
If you can find me where I pick them
I’ll sell you kisses, kisses by the pound

Mary, Mary, quite contrary you claim to be in love
But the man who buys you violets doesn’t look you in the eye
when he says that you’re the one
I’m just a casual observer of the hustle, the bustle, the midweek
fervor
with which we buy moments when we don’t have time
to pick them all ourselves

Sarah comes on Tuesdays to buy daffodils for Juan
She thinks that it’s the flowers keep him laughing on her lawn
Doesn’t know, doesn’t know, doesn’t know how love can be so sweet
Well I can smell the desperation in the stack of her receipts

I’m not your ordinary florist
I pick my flowers from the ground
If you can find me where I pick them
Oh, love can be tyrannical
Me, I’m just botanically so

From morning’s golden glory ‘til night has drawn the shades
I’ll tell you all my Latin for your pretty pennies paid
But I don’t work on weekends, no, weekends are my own
For if I did, then darling tell me, how would all the lovin’ get grown?

I don’t work on weekends, but if I did all the poppies would be free
I don’t work on weekends, no, no, no no…
For if I did, then darling, how would all the lovin’ get grown?

I’m not your ordinary florist
I pick my flowers from the ground
If you can find me where I pick them
I’ll sell you kisses, kisses by the pound

Penny for the poor boy, take pity for a friend
Put your pride on the pail and you put it on the rail
and the wind will blow again
Yes, he’s the same old sorry salesman, same old droopy grin
So do your best to smile and maintain indifference

He’ll ask you for a moment as he twiddles with his pen
You’d say that you don’t live here but he’d only ask you when
he can return
Same smile, but slightly different words
Homogenous petitions of the mindless chirping birds
Please, prevent this travesty
before it reaches infamy
You see, the monkeys need to learn to read
It’s Proposition 23, it’s for the monkeys and for me
I hope that your capacity to read is slightly smaller than the monkeys

Stubbornly indignant, secretly concerned
Grasp at conversation but the salesman never learned
how to make friends
Just speeches with slightly different ends
You reach into your wallet and examine all your tens

He thanks you with a smile but there’s something in his eyes
Bows before the doorstep, and suddenly you realize the lies,
The notion, so frightfully absurd
What need is there for monkeys to learn the written word?

Please, prevent this travesty
before it reaches infamy
You see, the monkeys need to learn to read
It’s Proposition 23, it’s for the monkeys and for me
I hope that your capacity to read is slightly smaller than the monkeys

Scrape, touch, oak leaves on your shoulder
poking little holes in the
shirt of my composure

Green, brown, you will come around
showing life in the summer
dead, dying, growing older

Burn, heal, learning how to feel
dropping stones in the river
splashing water on the heels of the

Green, love, dripping from above
growing moss on the lips of the lovers
Sweet sounds, ringing in the valley
we are not young but not yet old

Buttercups and bluebells
I am fresher than the new swell
in the morning on the ocean
when the water grows cold

When the hills have all turned green
I will wait here
‘til the fog clears
my home

There’s a valley in between
that I hold dear
free from all fear
when I roam

Only after all the falling of the rain, rain, rain
clears my veins in the neck
and the body of my home

When the hills have all turned green
and the fog burned low
I will turn into a creature I suppose

What if I come and tear you apart
of me wonders if I could
You’re half a helping,
but upon this hungry heart
I swear I would

Where to? Your carcass is rotting
as it should
You are forgiven,
for your body’s yet to feed
the hillside’s good

What if I come and tear you apart?
of me wonders if I could
You’re half a helping,
but upon this hungry heart
I swear I would

Where to? Your carcass is rotting
as it should…

All of the people are gonna move into the city
Where the billboard girls are pretty and the water don't run dry
Where the movies run all night and even the kitties got plenty o' mice
so we're going to the city tonight

And when we all get there, we're gonna go in on a business
We'll hire cute assistants who will do our work for free
We'll worry ‘bout our fitness as we barely run our business
in the city, where the money grows on trees

And when we've made millions off the poverty of billions
We'll marry our assistants and we'll build a family
And all of our children, we'll send them to the country
and we'll raise them like I wish they had raised me

But all your money, money, money…
it won't make the weather sunny
It will only make your pockets lumpy,
make the waitress jumpy
at the brand new bills she sees
Ain't it funny, funny, funny…
all the silly things we do for money
But it won't do a thing
unless you spend it on a ring
In the city, where the money grows on trees

All of our coffers are gonna fill up with the harvest
We'll ship our crops to all the farthest nations we can feed
But they will pay us well; they'll pay double or they'll go to hell
and we'll use the extra money to buy seeds

When all the farmers demand that we go local
We'll hire all the yokels to come working in our fields
And we'll have record yields, ‘cause yokels have the farmin' feel
and we'll use modern science on the weeds

But when we find oil under someone else's soil
We'll have a change of heart and give the farm to charity
All the philanthropy will mitigate the spillage
and we'll be rollin' deeper than the sea

But all your money, money, money…
it won't make the weather sunny
It will only make your pockets lumpy,
make the waitress jumpy
at the brand new bills she sees
Ain't it funny, funny, funny…
all the silly things we do for money
But it won't do a thing
unless you spend it on a ring
In the city, where the money grows on trees

All of our daughters are gonna grow up to be beauties
Their mother was a cutie and they'll build upon her genes
But we won't ever tell our pretty little daughters that we got wealth
and they'll grow up in the country rich and free

And when they go dancin', they'll surely take their chances
But the boys will all be honest like I never used to be
All of the music will make the people wiggle
and bit by bit they'll start to move their feet

So move like you're rich and your daddy don't tell ya
Move like you're rich and your momma don't know
Move like you never seen the bottom of the well
and marry me after the show
Move like you're rich and you don't know money
Move like a baker with sugar and dough
Move like a bee like that just made honey
and marry me after the show

My sister and her mister are ‘bout to leave this town
and all my friends will miss her, ‘cause she’s the prettiest girl around
But darling don’t get jealous when I tell you what is true
that the way I love my sister beats the way that I love you

And if you are a poor boy, she’ll laugh at all your jokes
she drinks until the morning and she cusses when she smokes
The rich men learn to hate her when the clock strikes 2am
and all their money’s wasted trying to scratch my sister’s gem

Ain’t afraid to say it to the whiskey in my cup
There ain’t nothing quite like family when you’re down to pick you up
Suddenly I’m laughing like the bubbles in my beer
Because my sister makes me smile
even when, yes, even when
she is not here

When momma wasn’t looking we’d do just as we pleased
Abby started laughing when she found me stealing cheese
And if she wanted bacon well I’d simply ask for more
I’d sail across an ocean for the sister I adore

And when I started dating I’d always date her friends
a couple bad decisions but it worked out in the end
But she was always looking for the jack of every trade
now all the jacks go grinning for the queen has yet to be played

If you take my sister, you better take good care of her,
do all the things that make my sister
smile, smile, smile
Listen to me, mister, if she shivers, you go cold
and if you bicker, you will fold
to keep my sister smiling
when she’s gone

Ain’t afraid to say it to the whiskey in my cup
There ain’t nothing quite like family when you’re down to pick you up
Suddenly I’m laughing like the bubbles in my beer
Because my sister makes me smile
even when, yes, even when
she is not here

When he woke it was not morning
on the night before the test
Tried his best to read the warning
but it was far too small, he took it all,
and wandered back to bed to get some rest

Woke again feeling quite funny
oh, his room was far too sunny, and his eggs were runny,
but he barely noticed what he ate
For he was staring at a spider as the fibrous thing climbed higher
than the naked eye could see,
still every leg in sharp relief

You see I tried to read the label
but the letters were too small
I took too much optometry
and now I cannot help but see it all

So he went about his day
finding single hairs of grey in the passers on the sidewalk
counting all the shades of may
All the ants they seemed much taller, and the people, they seemed uglier -
coarse skin given clarity by vision,
not the charity of what we make believe

But every blade of grass held beauty
so much to see
All the ridges in the wings
of the pigeons on the lawn
And the world became his movie
technicolored, telescopic
eyes to the mind
transmitting bits of love

You see I tried to read the label
but the letters were too small
I took too much optometry
and now I cannot help but see it all

If singing’s where your heart is
then let your voice ring fine
But if crime’s become your fancy,
why not let them intertwine?

We’ll rob a bank with music
oh at first the guards might balk
But the drums will smash the windows
while our harmonies pick locks

And when the cops come rushing
with bullets for our tunes
Oh, the double-bass will shake the place
and the flutes will make them swoon

The coda of the clicking locks
won’t take our voices long
Our steps in time, we’ll waltz on by
with a stolen sack of song

I came to the Midwest to put my fury to the test
Before her majesty the mud I took my bow
We were ankle-deep and crazy, and the clouds there sure are lazy
But the people like to dance for the here and now

I don’t recall the feeling, you were drunk and I was reeling
Oh, my mother would be horrified, your father would be proud
And it felt like we were stealing, but the music played for free
So we churned that mud to butter and we sang along too loud

Give me Moe, no
We won’t go
to bed until the thunder
makes the music wonder
what it’s ever gonna play
Give me Trey
on golden rays
Jesus brought the sunshine
with the souls he saved today

Your hat was slightly tilted and my speech was slightly stilted
Please forgive me if I mumbled, but the magic can’t be slurred
And the corn was far from wilted as it snaked away
I hope my eyes were eloquent to make up for my words

Well the ferris wheel was broken and the weather was outspoken
But the carnies simply giggled as they welcomed us aboard
And the tents were just a token of the life we’d left behind
We will muddle, waddle, wiggle here until we get some more

Safety Team assemble, there are shows still left to play
And if the light show keeps on going, then the crowd won’t go away
Though we can huddle here together, it’s too wet to kneel and pray
but if we all just wear some
sunscreen
we will see the light of day

The silence in the morning when they vanished without warning
Seeking higher ground and leaving only those who’d learned to fly
We wanted all of the things.
All of the time.
A little more whiskey and a lot more wine
Better not be sleeping when the weather is this fine

Give me sunshine
give me rain
My swamp is by the river
music will deliver
all of it is worth the pain
We forgot our given names
but we are all together here
and who’s to blame?

Give me Moe, no
We won’t go
to bed until the thunder
makes the music wonder
what it’s ever gonna play
Give me Trey
on golden rays
Jesus brought the sunshine
with the souls he saved today

I don’t know
what you want
But when your lady needs some lovin’, then you better get on it
It ain’t no fancy car
it ain’t no diamond ring
It’s in the way you move your body that will make her sing

I don’t know
where she from
But she’s a’looking like the kind to make a man go dumb
It could be sweet Virginia
could be Tennessee
But it don’t matter where she come because she coming for me

Well, the doctor told my baby she had pretty toes
But he ain’t never seen them wiggle, no the doctor don’t know
bout the way she make me feel with a kiss on the nose
Oh, what my baby want
he don’t know
he don’t know
he don’t know
he don’t know

I don’t know
what you need
But when your lady need some lovin’, best be ready indeed
It ain’t no furry coat
It ain’t no fancy dress
‘cause she looks better wearing nothing
this I must confess

I’ll never promise you a penny
I ain’t got no dimes
But I will give you all my lovin’, give it all of the time
And when the preacher from the pulpit said
I ain’t been good
Well he’s a’talking ‘bout a lovin’
he aint’ understood

Well, the doctor told my baby she had pretty toes
But he ain’t never seen them wiggle, no the doctor don’t know
bout the way she make me feel with a kiss on the nose
Oh, what my baby want
he don’t know
he don’t know
he don’t know
he don’t know