All lyrics ©Helen Healy

Send Me A Sign.

PROLOGUE

You say there is no love, my love
Unless it lasts forever
Ah folly, there are episodes
Far better than the play.

VERSE1
I would give anything, anything I could
Just to spend a few, minutes with you
Hold you in my arms
And I look at your picture and it breaks my heart
I can’t stand not having you here in my arms
I can’t find peace, I’ve got too much time
Keep looking for a reason that I just can’t find.

CHORUS
Send me a Sign, Send me a Sign
Sometimes I am so overcome
You’re here beside me and then you are gone
Send me a Sign, Send me a Sign
Some people say, you should not have been born
But it’s better to love and lose than never to love at all.

VERSE 2
So many times you asked me why
People have to die, and where they go
Well now you know Can you give me a sign.
I’m cooking meals for two that I just can’t eat
Driving round in my car beside an empty seat
Setting up games that we used to play
If you could just come back for one more day
But I am no God, this can never happen again. [CHORUS]

EPILOGUE
You say there is no love, my love
Unless it lasts forever
Ah folly, there are episodes
Far better than the play.

Too Close to the Bone

VERSE 1
It is so long since I have stood upon this land
I feel in love here with a most peculiar man
We left and travelled north we didn’t have a plan
And now I bring my child back to my childhood land [Chorus]

CHORUS
And it seems so weird
To have so many homes
This one here
Is too close to the bone
In an old house there
Down the road here
Seems to bring it all back
So crystal clear
Too close to the bone.

VERSE 2
We go down to the school where they taught me to behave
We go down to the church where I learned to be afraid
I show him relics of the places where we played
I walk the streets with him and think I’ve got it made. [Chorus]

VERSE 3
He often wondered where to find his home town base
I told him everywhere but he still wanted a name
I took him to the place where my old people lay
It all came back to me as I stood and watched his face. [Chorus]

I’m Going Home

VERSE 1
I’m ten floors up above the street
It seems so long since I’ve felt the soil beneath my feet
I work I eat I sleep this life
I’m in this building every day from nine to five
The streets are never different
Spring, autumn summer, winter
There always the same
The parks are kept so neat
The trees beside the street
They never change

CHORUS
Winding down country roads
Winding down from city life
Where I can go and know for sure
There is only you and I
I’m coming home
I’m coming home
Where the cars are few and far between
I have the space to think and dream
Extremes of life are clear to see
The floods, the dust, the rain the heat
I’m coming home. I’m coming home.

VERSE 2
The city voice is loud with screams
Of cars and planes and trains and broken, long lost dreams.
The land I go to speaks with ease
I don’t know why but it seems to calm the beast in me
There’s something in the peace and quiet
I don’t know what
But I know I like it anyway
I’m going home to feed my soul
The need to go is growing stronger everyday [Chorus]

A Dryland Murder Ballad

Verse 1
Last night I broke and something snapped
My wife is still reeling from the sting of my slap
I never thought I’d hurt her my head hangs in shame
I’m sick to the stomach and spit out your name

CHORUS
Oh Brian Brian you think me a dill
These hands have worked hard I never thought they’d kill
You pushed me too hard to the edge of the brink
The grapes of my wrath will be your last drink

Verse 2
I’m an honest man my word is my pledge
Your lies and your contracts have pushed me to the edge
My vines are worth nothing just like your word
You ruined my life you scum of the earth [Chorus]

Verse 3
My fathers have worked this land before me
I feel like a failure to this child on my knee
Hating myself but I hate your kind more
Now I have a gun as I walk out the door [Chorus]

Verse 4
You cocky little bastard with criminal dues
I wish you could spend one day in my shoes
Then you’d know how it feels to be on your knees
Crawling to the bank to once again beg and plead [Chorus]

Verse 5
Allow me the pleasure of making you squirm
With a gun to your head watch the worm turn
My desperation will reflect in your eyes
And with two bullets the pain will subside [Chorus]

Verse 6
Take me to the river and scatter my life
My apologies to my child and my wife
I can’t live with the shame of walking off my land
One gun two bullets and it’s out of my hands [Chorus]

(written and performed for BighART production of GOLD – Carriageworks, Sydney 2009)

Crystal Clear

Listen hear you
All the people,all the spaces
All the secret little places
They’re Crystal Clear
Listen hear you
All the comings, all the goings
All the private little showings
They’re Crystal Clear

CHORUS
You listen to me
I’ve been seeing through you
Through your back, through you’re sleeping eyes
Your lack of love, your constant lies
Hey you…see me

BRIDGE
Once upon a time when I was yours and you were mine
We were the best of lovers
The one for whom I’d burn
Now I have to wait in turn
It’s true
Now I look and find that you were never mine
You were the knight in armour
And I can’t get through to a man I never knew

VERSE 2
Listen here you
All the backrooms and the bars
All the once upon a time stars
They’re Crystal Clear
Listen here you
All the secret conversations
And the cryptical notations
They’re Crystal Clear

CHORUS
You listen to me
I’ve been seeing through you
Through your back, through you’re sleeping eyes
Your lack of love, your constant lies
Hey you…see me
And the only truth I’m coming near
The only thing that’s Crystal Clear
I want you..to see me
Walk out that door.

Jealousy

The Iceman cometh
Without moving from his chair
You could cut me to shreds
If there was life to your stare

In a matter of a moment
Time stands still
I’d be out like a light
If looks could kill

And I can guess
Well bless my soul
What a battle goes on in your heart
You turn green, see red
Try to swallow it instead
But jealousy rears it’s ugly head

Chorus
So what’s the matter with you
Let your jealousy go
If you’re not the man for me
You’ll be the first to know

No matter where I go
No matter who I see
My heart belongs to you
It was always meant to be

You can’t have all of me
I don’t want all of you
I can share my mind and share my time
But my heart is always true – to you

Silver Water or Warrior Queens

VERSE 1
She had a voice like silver water
She was her mother’s favourite daughter
There was something in her soul she recognised
When she opened her mouth and sang
We were all touched by God’s hand
And for a moment everything seemed alright
When she was fifteen years
She started coming home in tears
Then she started not coming home at all
Mother would go out
She’d be careful not to shout
And she’d gently lead her back in from the woods

CHORUS

This will never happen to you she said
This will never happen to you
You will never go crazy
Not even when you want to.

VERSE 2
She rarely ever meant what she said
God knows what went on in her head
Sometimes I had a clear view into her heart
One by one we were aching
For the blessed one was breaking
There was no cure, no light inside the dark
One night at 2am
She was not inside her room
I found her dying an empty bottle in her hand
She said it’s closing time
And I believed her choice was right
I didn’t call out,I just laid down and held her hand

VERSE 3
One the sun came up she was gone
I left her body to go home
Towards my mother standing in the back porch light
Does she want to slap my face
Or shoot me in the head
Now that she knows her favourite one is dead
She held me with her eyes
And sucked me from the dream
She pulled me into her heart and said
I have raised ‘Warrior Queens’, raised Warrior Queens.(Chorus)