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about

One of a series of "hamster wheel" songs of mine. My friend and bird lover Oen Kennedy always liked the line about invigorating my albatross.

lyrics

sometimes I feel like I was
born strapped to the table
with the buzz saw heading
right between my knees
sometimes I’m standing in
more water than I can bail
and there’s one door
and I’m fumbling for the keys

I hoe the road
I live the code
I never know
I shovel coal
into the mouth of the machine

and then I
go to bed wake up dead
beat myself about the head
lose it out on dead man’s curve
cut myself to show the nerve
shake my flaccid empty fist
run screaming from the premises
take it on the chin and then
get up and do it all again

when did this world of possibilities grow narrow
I thought I was on track
now I’m locked in
sometimes I wish I’d throw that switch
and just derail
watch those tracks just twist into a grin
I’ll do some damage walk away
from the linear array
to the dissonant clear blue

but now I’ll
go to bed wake up dead
beat myself about the head
see the mirror shifting red
more days behind me than ahead
drive this ancient tired train
into the hail wind and rain
take one for the team and then
get up and do it all again

when you die
do you get back the things that you lost
dreams and time
and that morning you looked at me
your eyes all over me
come hither stay with me
I had to go to a meeting
what was I thinking

sometimes I swear I must still be an adolescent
no different now than when I was 15
thin skinned then turning toward
translucent incandescent
and craving deviation from the mean

but I see the world through the same eyes
it ain’t no different people lie
when they’re older they just
do it while they smile

but now I’ll
go to bed wake up dead
beat myself about the head
nudge the train back on the track
give the goose a little smack
pay the incremental cost
invigorate my albatross
put my game face on and then
get up and do it all again

credits

from Voices From The Right Brain, released December 15, 2004

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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. ... more

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