JONI RENEE WHITWORTH
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Back to the River 

Sprinting through the airport I am sure that we are home
No more land lock, feel the ice drops
Rain is music to my soul
It's been a while since we drove on through
The Valley of Secrets
Let's stay awhile

No boyfriends, just lovers, now bring your best friends
We're gonna go back to the river to wash our sins
So won't you sing with us the new way as we make our way out?
We are Thai food carts and cherry tarts
The Middle Path is what we're all about

Sadie said that change is dead
"The Path is bulldozed and burning"
She doesn't know the Cascade snow runs deep
To fountains, wells, and toes
Sure we freeze when we go out
Only books could bring us in
Pumpkin, I'll carve out some meaning in this world

No boyfriends, just lovers, now bring your best friends
We're gonna go back to the river to wash our sins
So won't you sing with us the new way as we make our way out?
We are box elder bugs and drama clubs
The Middle Path is what we're all about

Stay awhile, stay awhile
The good girls and boys are coming back home

Babyface

Have you seen the fireworks?
I've been watching
They're lighting up your Disneyland sky
Have you looked into my truth and known me?
Have you seen the way I like to lie through my smiles?

Sure, I'm a wreck, but I've been trying to catch
Some meaning in this world
Boy, since you came nothing's feeling the same
I know I'll need to change my ways
It's gonna take faith and a loss of faith but
I'm there
You can count me in
I'm there
I need to take a break from sin
I swear I'll be good
Lord, I've changed my ways
Just give me that boy with the babyface

Sure, I've been around the block with tattoos
You are so clean
I wouldn't want you to lose your purity
Or maybe then I do, I'll take it
I'll show you what you've been missing out on
If I need to, I'll fake it

Sure, I'm a wreck, but I've been trying to catch
Some meaning in this world
Boy, since you came nothing's feeling the same
I know I'll need to change my ways
It's gonna take faith and a loss of faith but
I'm there
You can count me in
I'm there
I need to take a break from sin
I swear I'll be good
Lord, I've changed my ways
Just give me that boy with the babyface

I've gone too long giving my heart away
To boys with Coronas and nothing but pocket change
I need you, Babyface

Sure, I'm a wreck, but I've been trying to catch
Some meaning in this world
Boy, since you came nothing's feeling the same
I know I'll need to change my ways
It's gonna take faith and a loss of faith but
I'm there
You can count me in
I'm there
I need to take a break from sin
I swear I'll be good
Lord, I've changed my ways
Just give me that boy with the babyface

I finally told you just how I feel
It took a shitload of guts but that feeling was real
I looked you dead in the heart and told you my thoughts
You stood there and asked if I believe in God

Babyface, I've got no faith

Princess

Oh pretty pretty princess, your blonde hair is a curse
You're trading in your novels for a name brand purse
There is nothing to be purchased, just unanswered questions
You're going to ask me in five years.  Life lessons are there
You have to trust me, just give hope a chance
We all know Obama's lying through his teeth in this dance
We're a nation of sheeple, our shields are getting thin
I love you too much darling to just stand by and watch you

Cave in and go down so fast - I felt it
Listen to me bleeding
Every time we talk I feel it
The murder of genius

Where do we go in the rat race?
Where do we go in the rat race?
Where can we find some space?

I tried to take a walk but there were so many fences
I asked you for some passion but all you've got left is
A spare supply of tickets to a joke without a punchline
I want to be alive for more than standing in a line that's no fun
I am a plant killer; it's part of who I am but
If I get a chance for life I'm going to give it all I have
I'll water my children and send them on their way
Middle finger to the law, that's what I call being

Someone someday.  Now feel this
And listen to me bleeding
Because every time we talk I swear I can feel it
The murder of a genius

Where do we go in the rat race?
Where do we go in the rat race?
Where can we find some space?

Orwell shot my Xbox, Dickens shot my Xbox
Rand shot my Xbox, Sedaris shot my Xbox
There is nowhere we can purchase the answers to our questions
Or cash in on what we gave for life's lessons

Sun Cat

Suncat, my sunny girl
We're lost in the tidepools
Talking about fools we never could catch
The ones we couldn't get a grip on
I never get a grip on you

Suncat, we're two little dreamers
Two little readers
We both like it rough
I never get enough of all those little wise things you have to say

I warned you if you ever should leave me
I'd be punning out of puntrol
Until you punned right back into my soul
I'll love you, little Suncat

Do you remember?  We were so happy, candymouthed
We were so sad when you were shooting up on the couch
We were so thrilled when we kissed in the foyer
It was cool when you introduced me to your employer
At that work party thing on the other side of town
Moment by moment, you led me down

I warned you if you ever should leave me
I'd be punning out of puntrol
Until you punned right back into my soul
I'll love you, little Suncat

When you need chapstick or all our friends are dicks or
I've got a letter from another collector or
If there's a libertarian speaker and I've been dying to meet her
I know you'll be there

So I warned you if you ever should leave me
I'd be punning out of puntrol
Until you punned right back into my soul
I'll love you, little Suncat

Suncat, my sunny girl
We're lost in the tidepools
Talking about fools we never could catch
The ones we couldn't get a grip on
I know I'll never get a grip on you

If You're Gonna Call

In the middle of each year you call
I tell you, "Yes...I'm still here. 
I haven't traveled much since you left."
Go ahead and ask it -- still single.
I just haven't found The One.
He's there at the bar in the back of my show
In my dreams he is black.
In real life, I don't know what I want because

You were complicated...
I lie to my friends that you've faded, but you haven't.
So don't pick up that phone 'till you tell me you're coming back home.

My only regret was getting the best so early on
So when you were gone I could spend a lifetime
Chasing shades of what we had.
I hate when I see brown eyes
I fucking hate that
and motorcycles,
and fireflies;
They're like poison you've FedExed
You keep sending a gun
For the life and the love I've kept pending.

You were thoughtful, and that's rare.
You spoke and I handled a whole mouthful
Of everything you had to share
So don't pick up that phone 'till you tell me you're coming back home.

Let me ask you:
How is your shower without all my singing?
How is our restaurant?
When did it sink in that pancakes and Seinfeld
and everything we loved
Was horrid, morbid shit to get rid of?

We all move on, but you've made this quite tricky:
You superglued your sex on me
It's sticky to see someone new
I try to pretend that I'm running but
I still see your face every night when I'm coming

Don't you see? 
You were disgustingly handsome
You hijacked my heart and put my faith up for ransom.

Don't torture me now.
If you've stated a family, I don't care
I don't want to know
I don't want you on my phone until
You say you're coming back home

Robots Who Are Escaping: Conversations Between Rigid Lovers

She is enigma, she is a stigma you cannot explain
This sweet overworked metal child is kind
She is watching us to train her mind

Running away through space
We hit an unexpected meteor shower
One knocked down to Earth, one to the moon
Oh Lord, you work in mysterious ways, you do, you do

Lost and lonely, where'd my baby go?
If I could make a connection, I'd tell her to fly back home
Snatched up in the arms of another foreign family
Opportunistic, kinda sadistic, working her down to the bone

A330, I can't get through
I hear someone calling but I don't think it's you
They took me down to NASA, they swore they'd take me in
Now I'm just a pile of junk in the scrap metal bin

Lost and lonely, where's my baby gone?
I miss the lights and the beeps when she'd turn me on
She's a housemaid, it's true, and I'm just a translator
She drives me crazy sometimes but I could never hate her

No beaten track, no precedent
For a robot love predicament
Her wit is my battery, her touch is my petrol
Before the stones fell I remember: love was a girl

She is enigma, she is a stigma you cannot explain
Oh sweet moon rock, you're just fine
But without love we all will lose our minds
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