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Irreducible

from A Landscape of Ghosts by Rob Siegel

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about

We are our stuff.

lyrics

when I organize the office
or clean out my top drawer
the bills go in the folders
but there’s stuff that I can’t sort
here’s some cufflinks from my father
here’s a tape from my old band
here’s a fountain pen from high school
when I used to write longhand

here’s a birthday card from Lisa
here’s my old UMass ID
here’s a clipping from a magazine
that reviewed my CD
these things can’t be filed or classified
and can’t be thrown away
so I put them in a box
with other stuff that I must save

irreducible
fragments of a life
irreducible
it’s a wonder what survives
irreducible
these pieces I can see
irreducible
must mean something to me

here’s my old expired passport
with that picture taken when
I’d been awake for three days straight
that first week of exams
here’s an entertainment license
from 1998
says Nantucket street performer
yeah I did that for one day

oh look a map of Glasgow
I was young and stupid then
I’d hitchhiked up from Edenborough
to visit an old friend
a trucker saved me from a snowstorm
are ye daft lad? then he poured
us both hot tea from a thermos
and he drove me to her door

fragments of a life
it’s a wonder what survives
take one of them away
I’d be someone else today

so what is the importance
of this box of random stuff
what separates significance
from the flotsam and the fluff
the one thing they have in common
is the accident of how
I never sought to save them
but I can’t pitch them now

sometimes I open up these boxes
and let them take me back
I don’t clean them out or second guess
I leave it all intact
as I look across this cluttered house
from the mundane to the grave
I think about these memories
and wonder what to save

fragments of my life
it’s a wonder I survived
greater than the whole
breadcrumbs to the soul

credits

from A Landscape of Ghosts, released March 24, 2018
Guitar and vocal: Rob Siegel
Fiddle: Tim Roper
Upright bass: Peter Tillotson
Keyboard and percussion: Doug Kwartler

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all rights reserved

tags

about

Rob Siegel Boston, Massachusetts

Rob Siegel is well-known in Boston folk music circles as an innovative songwriter who draws from his idyllic yet stressed- out middle-class suburban existence and produces memorable, intelligent, well-crafted songs.

His first new CD in 14 years, "A Landscape of Ghosts," will be out in April, with a CD release show at Club Passim on Monday April 30th.
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