Made In China

Eyes that smile
a mouth that blinks
a head that feels
a heart that thinks
dreams that live
a life that sleeps
commodities I throw away
but the trash I keep

The world is upside-down
serenity is inside-out
see my tail as I turn around
shadow box but I lose the bout
I break my toys
though nothing could be finer
I’m a boy
and the whole world’s
made in China

Fingers do the walking
I paint with my toes
bones will do the talking
Insecurity grows
black meets white
a yellow cat crosses
my path there
I throw my hair up
to this whole affair

Drink to get sober
get sober and drink
I’m writing with blood
until I’m bleeding ink
dig a hole
wind up on my head
sleep on the kitchen table
and I eat in bed

Michiko Freemond

Speechless

Every time I try to speak up
it comes out wrong
What I say and what he hears
just don't get along
All the choices are like
grains of sand
so I rattle around like a
bug in a can
and I'm struck dumb again
Then speechless

(Drop a little) bait that goes
straight from my mouth and
out into the air
Till he purses his perfect lips
and fashions his inimitable face
into a dare
Was that come hither
or maybe a riddle
Do he want me
even a little
while I wax young and go numb
and become speechless

I got answers but he
abstracts them away
Wish I had something
ever so slightly less cryptic to say
Give me big words for
big words out of place
so I can stem the fall
of a wordsmith's disgrace
How I dare to draw air when
he don't seem to care
I'm there, speechless

Fractured and broke
and the word is a joke
and I'm speechless

(And then ta da) I'm a writer
with a serious insufficience
of words
I get cross and my thoughts
fly like an indigent army of birds
They take off high
and they go straight and tight
into the arms of the pregnant
and forgiving night
where there's no chance that
some man waits for you
to phrase it right
all right ... speechless

So what else, let me think,
wait a minute, let me think, uh,
I sigh and I shrug
Girl with the lips says
something he inhales like
the ultimate drug
He closes his eyes and it goes
through his veins
like the mechanics of faith
finally explained
and he holds in the smoke
meanwhile I start to choke
Big dope, speechless

He says something fine
about the skeletal structure
of time
My joints ache as I race
towards the next imminent line
I could write a book out of
what is unsaid
I try to catch the last
atrophied thought in my head
but it rolls down the tome
through the breach in the bone
Alone and speechless

The imminent punch line is
having a good time, concealed
I'm too slow on the draw
the point sticks in my craw
and I yield
Snatch up the good lines
just like the devil
My clips all out, ok,
there it's settled
So depleted, deleted, defeated,
uncompleted, conceded,
mistreated, and cheated
Please, I'm speechless

Someday I'll take up a mic
and go on for a year
talking bout hope
and redemption and faith
and wordlessness and sex
and love (and love and love)
and fear
but until that
absurdly prodigious day
I'll just type and re-write
all my hours away
and the penultimate things
that I finally will say
sway him speechless

Author couture
the rhyme is totally pure
Sure, I'm speechless
Unalabied and
and answer me why
I ... speechless

Blocked at the neck
inarticulate wreck
Heck I'm speechless
Slow on the verbal uptake
I can't enunciate
Make me speechless

Command of the tongue
but a leak in the lung
Done ... I'm speechless

and I'm ...

Michiko Freemond

Paper Boats

I fold up all of the letters
you wrote
and make each one
in to his own little boat
I march them all down
to the water line
and I know now, that
no love was ever really mine

I cast them away
into the blue
you had the only love that
ever really ran half true
and you loved
without control
and these paper notes
will sail like boats to you
brag their tiny totes
until they're gone

I cull my notes now
I put your picture
in each one
my little armada of hurts
left to be undone
the water runs clear now
and it goes out to the sea
all my words will lose
their precious ink today
and they're free

I'm going away
but I'm taking my time
you had the only love that
really ever was half mine
and you loved
out of control
and these paper boats
will sail like notes to you
brag their tiny totes
until you're gone

I'm done with all of these tears
for now
because I cried me a river
and I nearly drowned
and if you should come back
drop me a note
I'll still be standing in the sand
waiting for your paper boats
to come home

So I hail you
because I guess I'm still
holding out hope
that now you know how
I didn't want to
but I had to let go
I still miss you
and your tender hand
go on and sail around
the open sea
I'll be here on dry land

Michiko Freemond

Grey Story

I loved him so
it wasn't good for me
I tried to squeeze honey
from a bee
I took on every dare
he dared to give
because the story was
a reason to live

Pouring honey over
Jasmine tea
He's too bad
was too good for me
Upset my sense
of right and wrong
Until it was just a question
of weak and strong

Rolling
Just like a train
that keeps going
Rolling
Just like a train
that goes nowhere

So the dog bites
And the bee stings
When the dove cried
It was just one of those things
This is how it is when
the new one's new
There's no accounting for
the shit he makes you do

Time's a temple
my heart is a yard
Life's a green apple
it's sweet but it's hard
The Grey story
is a lonely one
and just as bitter
as it was fun

and I don't need to say
anything I guess
I'm just the girl
in your ex-wife's dress
Pulling all the curtains closed
and dropping all my blinds
It takes a lifetime to
write the last line

Michiko Freemond

Oh Là Là

Good love
bonne chance
Whatever mama wants
daddy wants

Messieurs dames
he's fine as wine
Feel so much better
now he's mine mine mine
Ooh là là
we sing
we're burning it down
Ooh là là
I can't believe
this love that I’ve found
Ooh là là
je t'aime
or do I adore?
Ooh là là

Ferme ta bouche
baby ça va?
A little sugar and
mon Dieu, voilà

C'est incroyable
cet amour à moi
Tout ce que je peux dire
C’est Ooh là là

I don’t know if he understands
a single word that I say
I’m going to tell him today
in a way
that words won’t matter
C’est dans ses yeux
et dans son coeur
He's got a love for one
and yeah I'm her

Plus besoin
de chercher. ma fois!
elui que je désire
est déjà là

Michiko Freemond &
Shawn Burkley

Home

End of the line
Top of the stairs
I guess I’ll go now
if nobody cares

Tried to be true
Talked it all out
Talked out but talk
never turned it around

Out in the open
All up for grabs
Subdivide everything
back into halves
and go ...

Home
Just like a bad rhyme
Home
There’s no good way out
No never wasting my time
Just skating the edges and
dipping a toe in
to see if the weather will hold
until we get us back home

Oh no
To far to fall
so we slow everything down to a crawl
Go one more season
just one more stop
Up in the air
to see who lands on top

Hold on to everything
hold on hold on
Before you know what’s happening
You’re a little late
He’s on the interstate
and he’s gone

Black out the windows
It’s too much to tell
Nothing that starts bad
can ever end well

And love
True love
never comes

Home
There is no why
Home
Oh just because
No, never wasting my time
Just skating the edges and
dipping a toe in
to see if the weather will hold
because I gotta go home

Michiko Freemond

Closest Thing to Love

Here's the city
Here's the city at night
He's too pretty
He's too good and too right

The night is so cool
The night is too warm
This is the very first night
The night our love was born

and we tried to bring the moon down

Love has a lonely little place now
filled with nothing but time
I guess your memory gets erased now
These were letters written in blood
It was the closest thing to love

Sweet sinner grinning
a little angelic smile
and I don't mind admitting
that was mine for a while

When we sat in the back room
When we turned down the shade
When we were so inclined
while the second band played

Oh the love was so sweet
but the blues were so blue
I got knocked off my feet
while I reached up for you
and the lesson is clear to me now
if something's gained
from losing love
then I had more than enough

We planted a garden
What we planted outgrew
the roots of the feeling
that brought me close to you

We had a secret
It started to show
I couldn't keep it
but it's hard to let go

Michiko Freemond

Cry

It's only a soul
that's been wounded
It's no big deal
It's only a dance
that he does very well
not to feel
It's only a face
that he puts on at night
Convincing the people
he's doing alright
Go on and give it all up girl
but he still has to steal

You don't melt a stone
with your touch
You don't change
the world over night
Just keep running uphill
with your heart in your hands
They say that it can't
hurt to try

Cry
If you want to
Cry
If you must
Cry
If you must do

It's only your soul
that's flown out of control
and it's only your heart
on the line
Cry

If you tripped over love
Don't think that you
are the first
Everybody I know's
got a stone face
and it's nailed in
and it's so well rehearsed
and your lover's got
a tender place
you'd like to touch
He won't reveal it
but he needs it so much
Then it's pain on pain
and that's how we learn

Michiko Freemond

I Call Baby

A rose is a rose
and a friend is a friend
but my baby has gone away
A new love comes
and a new love goes
and my baby has gone away

May come a lover
now and again
bring him young
bring him sweet
Bring him ready to work
and get down in the dirt
and knock me off of my feet

Now every other ordinary day
I used to love to see
my baby smile and say
come
come be by me
and my arms weren't
wide enough to make him stay
and now that my sweet boy
has up and flown away
I can not see
And you know he
ain't coming back
and he never said maybe
He's still the only boy
that I call baby

He was left handed
and he always demanded
that I rock him
and put him to sleep
I've been loving him too long
He did me so wrong
and I can't say nothing but
daddy please

I got an old note
on the stand by the bed
Said he's coming home
and coming home soon
I'm pretty smart
but I have rocks in my heart
and I'm still alone in my room

Michiko Freemond

I've Done It Again

Just this one thing
about myself
I've lived in fear
for too long
estranged and
without myself
Still I know
that I'm strong

Thought that I'd
shut the door on love
I've had enough for a while
Was not watching
for signs from above
from anyone
less than an angel

Oh no
I've done it again
Tripped and I'm falling
over love
and head over heels

Oh no
I've done it again
The harder I fight you
the better it feels

In the end
I let go of myself
and I get lost
in your arms
I don't have the strength
left to fight
but I can hear the alarm

This is madness
I can't get enough
Give all your love
to me, yeah
I was so empty until
you filled me up
now I don't want
to be free

Michiko Freemond

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