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Talking to Alexander Hamilton About the Wonders of the Modern World

by The Little Miracles of Misanthropy

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1.
Mark a circle, to dig a hole Hold the ice until it fuses Fingertips turned white from cold Wait for the sun, to bless its skin Watch it glimmer for a while Then rush on toward its own end As bit by bit the work you shaped by pieces Slumps, and falters in decline And you’re reminded that the river Is more than just the water It’s the time, it’s the time, it’s the time The crack of rock, a solid sound Satisfying once you’ve learned Bracken grows darker underground Ignore the tear, of thorn through skin You know it’s all just temporary Know it’s all just temporary All the bending shaping, pinning, curling Force, of thought and world aligned Just to remind you that the river Is more than just the water It’s the time, it’s the time, it’s the time
2.
Like the words to an ancient incantation “This is my favorite book in all the world.” Begins our endless exploration Through ink and paper, Aether, air, and soil The wind is ripping ‘cross the mainsail Splashing big wet drops upon your sill But you want to find out what comes later Like the first to put parchment under quill And I’m saying, “I love you,” With someone else’s words In every nightly story Just saying, “I love you,” With someone else’s words Like countless come before me The caves are dark and wet and twisting And the woods have no easy paths to tread But there’s comfort in the sound of recitation And the pillow is soft behind your head We’ve appeared before great kings Been tracked from dream to dream Flown weightless wrapped in foreign clouds Leaving traces only we can see On shelves against the wall And in solid memory We learn the might of dark and secret orders We see the power in making one last stand And we know the joy of journeys never ending From hidden gardens to the Summerlands
3.
You talk to yourself If you think no one is watching And it makes me want to take you in hand And tell you again You’re safe and you’re home But that just makes you angry So I leave you alone To fight off the bad angels Who came back beside you Whispering their sneaky deceits ‘til you do I’m just happy ‘cause you’re sitting here with me At the Muni, watching Quarry fight Ali He’s been away, too I know not like you were But he’s fit, still pretty, and whole Said he didn’t have a quarrel With those folks over there Well you didn’t either Now I wish you’d not gone To that jungle that took you And made you more hard Than you ever should have needed to be But we’re far from the worst ‘cause you’re sitting here with me At the Muni, watching Quarry fight Ali And I’m not scared to open the papers anymore Or watch the news on my TV set. I don’t flinch anymore With every knock on the door But that doesn’t mean that I can forget Did he have someone there Telling him not to go Stay here to fight for what you believe That should have been me It was my job to protect you Now I curse at my weakness Every time I look at you And see how you’ll never be The way that you were When you talked and you laughed easily So I’m relieved but I mourn I know I’ll never forgive me At the Muni, watching Quarry fight Ali God, I’m so glad you’re here But I know I’ll never forgive me At the Muni, watching Quarry fight Ali
4.
Watching a lone ant March in ever dwindling circles Carrying his thread Through the twists of a small shell In the hope that I might be revealed To the one who wants to find me And I’ll let him take me back Submit willingly and timely So when Minos steps into the room And calls to me by name I feel all my burden lift Know my time has finally waned I am ready to divest myself Of all encumbering things And think of nothing Except for new kinds of wax to make wings
5.
I emerged in familiar rain The feeling strong, if the details hazy Like I had done, a dozen Or maybe more times before And you are sitting in that chair Far side of that streaky window Deep breath to get ready To render you aware I believe in what I do Even though the fires are burning behind me If I could not fix their pain I guess I just stayed focused on mine I know you won’t thank me once I’m gone I remember how much I felt I’d constrained me Stick to the path, and keep on plodding on No mistakes and no surprises Everything all scripted out The goal of happiness at the end If it all blows up, well to hell with them Time’s what I make ‘til I do it all again
6.
Give me lots of clean white wide-open spacing Give me words with heft and dash and sheen And I will tell them whatever you want me to tell them Cause someday I’m going to be everything Gonna sweep away all the crass and the cluttered Make a space cosmopolitan and clean And I’ll be the very thing you think I ought to Cause someday I’m going to be everything The smug face of cold corporations The new blood of egalite And I’ll spread like a massive infection of wonder Cause someday I’m going to be everything Oh I know they’ll call me standoffish and boring I’ll be the hippest side of conformity I’ll be a great contradiction in form and discussion Cause someday I’m going to be everything Appealing just cause I’m familiar The acme of neutrality But for all of my blandness they’re still going to know me Cause someday I’m going to be everything Yeah someday I’m going to be everything
7.
The Queen of Swords was third card down Centered in a Celtic Cross Half an hour since I’d slammed down My last drink of the day The Emperor was laughing And the Page of Wands was indecisive Early in the morning in this rat hole hideaway Ashamed that I had come again But I had to know the causes for my paralyzing fear For what the future holds in store Just one little hint From the guiding light of divination Trumps all hope or prayer in my internal little war But she never tells me anything I really need to know But when the Tarot Reader speaks There’s always something makes me listen The shame and the sorrow At 2 A.M. The Hanged Man Came to visit me while I was dreaming Calling me by name From his rope high up in a tree He whispered greater secrets But in words I couldn’t understand Not even the bottle could help to tell me what they mean Can’t tell me there’s no one talking from the other side Maybe she can help me this one time Pulled on my shoes and last night’s clothes Made my way to her apartment Struggling to find the way carefully and slow Hoping she’d have some new line Connecting her with old arcana Didn’t even seem surprised When she opened up her door
8.
Stayed up all night again last night Making plans and fighting visions Wanted to go to you But just stayed where I was Waiting for the sun There’s a river in the way you breathe Takes me back to brick dust places The taste of raw milk and almond pastry Sweet and bitter on my tongue We may leave but we don’t go We’re secured to one another, eye to soul Try to give you what I can Spend my strength on your momentum There’s are paths we shouldn’t have to take If we just knew the way What do I do What do I do What do I do What do I do from here?
9.
Don’t stand up You can talk about me once I’ve quit the room But I’m going to have a last say And there is nothing you can do Let’s not pretend That this was ever about the films Only concerns over cost And the aesthetic of the till So I’ll move on Leave all you zombies in my wake There’s people left in this town Who value talent over bank But I won’t be bowed Or even hurried on my way ‘cause I’m a Universal monster all my days Sometimes hours Behind the chair is what it takes To get the right look on the screen Or cover up the cheap mistakes There’s no patent heart No piece of rubber that fits the role It’s gotta come from the kit And from my head and from my soul So don’t talk art You only make it sound profane Stick to the stuff that you know And leave the dreamers to their games ‘cause I won’t give up The methods I use to amaze I’ll stay a Universal monster all my days Can’t be the kind of man I hate In time I’d become The only creature I’m afraid of So I’ll never turn back For even one last longed for gaze I’ll stay a Universal monster all my days
10.
Kansas, 1801 03:38
I built this house From the sod and the ground that we live upon Just to last the year ‘till you can raise something fine for your own And we’ll work the land Just the same as we do and we talk about And when the sun goes down I’ll go home to my wife and you to yours So I look to the east Where you come home with a woman from Baltimore And I thank what’s good And want for more My father’s hands Taught me all of the tales that I’ll ever know How to make a world Out of callus, and silence, and bone All twisted in No escape from the wind or the darker thought And miles and days away Still feels too close every time I’m alone The tree outside Will grow tall if the wind doesn’t knock it down When the summer rains Blow in hard as a grey, stony sky And give you shade Give your kids and their kids a thing to play around And pull its roots Down with yours just as deep here as mine

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released July 11, 2014

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The Little Miracles of Misanthropy Tempe

The Little Miracles of Misanthropy is Tempe, AZ singer/songwriter Ben Jacobs. Ben writes and performs thought provoking, indie-folk driven acoustic music that explores nature, history, literature, and the simple struggle to be good humans.

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