Penny on the Track © 2004 Mary Johnson
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It’s not that I didn’t like Papa’s Sunday speech
But the hotter that the summer got the longer he could preach
We’d pass some notes and clear our throats, make stories in our heads
Sometimes we’d get away to King David’s riverbed

Down where the river met Maple Avenue,
The edge of the universe or what of it we knew
That’s where the freight train would take you out of town
We’d never catch a sight of it, only heard the sound

Lay your penny down, sister
Put your ear on the tracks
Hear that train like thunder
Now run and don’t look back
After church we’ll come around
And find that penny flat

Papa said so many things the lord would say are true
Like how you don’t treat someone in a way you wouldn’t want for you
He talked about the riverside and laying your guns down
Then one day he said too much and they ran him out of town

Sister, well I held your hand when we left that place one day
We heard the train calling but we didn’t run away
Something may be shiny, they’ll sell it for a dime
But a penny is a penny, and a lie it is a lie, is a lie

Sweetness
© 2004 Mary Johnson
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Jury, sitting in your box
What’s the story, guilty or not
Am I lonely, or unholy
Or just one who missed the bus

Your sentence I carry with me everyday
It’s in the words you don’t say, in your stare
And I retaliate with all my made-up hate
You can’t catch me anywhere

I’ll drink the hard stuff
I’ll find a new love
I’ll walk the tight rope without looking down
I’ll even talk tough
You’ll never guess what
I’m really feeling, I really need is
Sweetness, Sweetness

Carnival man, let me play again
Gave you my dollar now give me a chance
I will show you how the cheated learn to beat the cheater
Then leave their prize and run

I’ve got blisters on my debts from the many times I’ve left
No town knows my name
Would you take a drink
Would you even think
There’s something in this wasted heart

Car Keys in the Grass
© 2002 Mary Johnson
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Do you know I have your old guitar
I see it every day
It’s got no name just a stamp inside
Made in Germany
Your father bought a small guitar
For a small boy in a big town
Broken strings stay broken
Fathers gone stay gone

And I wanted to lose my car keys in the grass
And never drive home,
Stay with you the whole night long

Your love surprised me
At a hot summer’s end
The day I traveled time with you
No one knew including me
Do you know that I kissed you
When you were fast asleep
All those things we wanted to say
Were sleeping too deep

You are with someone, somewhere
I will never know her name
But I will make a song for you
And I will make it rain

Arms of Orange County
© 2004 Mary Johnson
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l feel closer to 2 am than any other hour
Even parking lots when empty wonder what they are for
Last call wasn't calling me at all
But no one asked a question when I sat down at the bar

I dreamed a highway, just like the song
The verses were the exits, the chorus was my home

Orange County, put your arms around me
Tell me where to sleep
Orange County, put your arms around me
I am tired, don't want to leave

Keychain, world's fair, 1982
The corner of a photograph, a man I never knew
A big wind could come around and blow these things away
I have seen more cities than the years I have to claim

Cherry of a cigarette, star beside the moon
Everything's a circle that brings me back to you
I could spend my whole life wondering where I'm from
But in the end what matters is how my day was done