Night of the Shooting Stars

These Days Are Good for the Canadian Conservative Youth Party Alliance
by Martin Tielli

Days are good for the Canadian Conservative Youth Party Alliance.
These days are good for us now.
Days are good for the C.C.Y.P.A.
These days are good for us now.
The sun comes up on the flat Edmonton street.
Oh, this morning will be good for us!
There will be no nonsense for the workers to sweep in the morning.
Will be good for us!

I chipped my eye tooth on the back of a urinal.
I will snip your life with the skill of a tailor. Man.

There has been a shift in the public's expectations.
These days are good for us now.
There's a Lenny in my Kravitz that must be removed.
These days are good for us now.
All together! Oh, this day will be good for us.
Oh, pitiful every man. How I've learned to shake your hand.

C.C.Y.P.A.C.C.Y.P.A.C.C.
This is a difficult world, but there are opportunities here.
Oh, these days could be good for you.
There are programs in place that will cure you, that will cure you.
Oh, these days could be good for you.
When the sun goes down on the flat Edmonton streets,
You will seek normal pleasures.
There are sports teams with cheerleaders who will double as hookers.

I chipped my eye tooth on the back of a urinal.
You've got your pain and I've got my pain.
But I don't complain. No I don't complain.
I first snip your life with the precision of a tailor.
Oh pitiful every man, how I've learned to shake your hand.
Oh simple every man, how I've learned... to shake your calloused hand.

Song of the Garden
by Dave Merritt and Mike Bonnell

You couldn't have asked for a better day to watch the Squeekums and the Sapbellies play.
Take a recess from the hum-glum and step inside the Gardenarium.

There's a place in the heart of Harmelodia...
It's greener than the greenest place you've been.
(It's the keenest place I've seen.),
Where the honey crown vine climbs up to the clouds and tickles them till rains comes out.

The Silver Quickets and Grumble bees, they hum their summer humming symphony.
Frizzenlillies and Frankenfronds, they float like Crocosmiles on sparkling ponds.

It's so nice to be back in Harmelodia...
It's greener than the greenest place you've been.
(It's the greenest place I've seen.)
Where the honey crown vine climbs up to the clouds and lets the sun shine out.

Mumbletypeg
by Dave Bidini

I was like you -- a dot, a figure, or a point on a star.
I could be a king, a knight, a fraggle, or a Johnny Guitar.
Cast in the mirrored light, ten stories high, the serpent lays below the light.
Don't look down.

I had a mom, a dad, a sister in the back of the car.
Frightened by every living creature till she cut through the dark.
Saw her reflection in the screaming ice, fell in love not even twice --
Or three times.

Love struck quick. Was like a razor's flick. Hand to eyes and mouth.
The Angels cried when they send you south, but you will -- you will --
You will be happy in spite of the shit and the pain of it.
A little dream of flags on an inky ship. You will ride five colored horses.
Open sesame. Open your lips. Oh, I will...

Everything big -- so full of nothing that I just didn't need.
Licking you like an all day sucker game of Mumbletypeg.
You are the little thing that I understand, like playing in this rock and roll band.
We roll along.

Something grew between the black and blue. Heart to fill a house.
A love so true, now there is no doubt that you will -- you will --
You will be happy, in spite of the shit and the pain of it.
A little dream of flags on an inky ship in a land of mock believe.
Open sesame. Steady your knees. Oh, I will...

Your love is a flower I pluck from your hair.
We park by the water, our bodies laid bare.
The right of the wrong. The sound of the song.
You will -- you will be happy despite of the shit and the pain of it.
A little dream of flags on an inky ship. You will ride five colored horses.
Open sesame. Steady your knees. Oh, I will...

P.I.N.
by Martin Tielli

Boss! The plane! I see the plane come with supplies, now we don't die.
It comes out of the blue and into the gray below.
Death... you know? An arm in the snow froze to a stick,
Carving an "S" and "O"... Oh.

When I get happy again I long to see you let me in.
You've got the key to my heart. You've got the P.I.N. to my guts.

I've got a dream. I've got a plan: I leave this world, live off the land.
Once I get good. Once I get better.
God bless the plane that came with supply. Now we don't die.
We go out of the gray and into the blue above.

When I get happy again, I'll just go back and try it again.
When I get happy again, I'll long to see you let me in.
You've got the key to my heart. You've got the P.I.N. to my guts.

The fire that burns without a flame.
The fire that don't need oxygen.
The fire the fire the fire the fire.
The fire that don't need anything.

Superdifficult
by Tim Vesely

Your Superman reluctantly rubs his hands.
Been called for the post of I'll be your Superman.

It's what I know. What I've been hauled out for.
It's a blindfold, a shootless jump. Yeah, here I go.

Changed me, I know. So why don't you scare me so?
You blind folded me and shoved me out. There I go.

Your Superman. Steady as you grow.
A simple plan. Superdifficult.

Ooooo, not alone. Your very own. Your very own Super man.

Junction Foil Ball
by Martin Tielli

He worked out the corrugations with his thumbs and knuckles too.
He started humble and ended justifiably huge.
Oh, fuck you -- you never wanted to.
Just got it... once, two, three, forever FRIED.
No one here gets out alive.
You were once foil fresh,
Wrapped around your cigarettes.

'67, you were born, March the 8th.
This inspiration was passed through.
What was guilt has become you.

9 times out of 10 the child re-sins.
9 times out of 10 or so they say.

11 foot tall and a ton of tonnes.
The dull lead glow of so much fun.
It's a beautiful thing. Take it across the tracks.
Take it across the tracks and bomb the mall.

Nine times out of ten a child rescinds.
Nine times out of ten or so the experts say.

As we go into the slow acoustic tiling...

Canadian Club and Solitaire.
Show me the drugs in your mom's room.
This was the thing when I was twelve...

We Went West
by Tim Vesely

We went west on our very first tour.
It takes a day to drive to the outskirts of lake nowhere.
It takes a second day to meet your first mechanic.
Move along. Tied it on. Let's not panic.

Like a free-fall, the rocks and trees release you.
Blue sky smiles above and does its best to please you.
Feels like it's rarer, or closer to above.
Move along. Coast is clear. Come on!

We liked Winnipeg, befriended we left traces.
I find the tightest knit live in the wide open spaces.
... And we're still tightly knit, though years have come and gone.
Move along. West End rules. Move along.

I remember Broadview by the tracks.
And how the sun lit the names on Legion plaques.
How can forever not last long enough?
Move along. Can't come back. Move along.

Out of Badlands into bad parts of the city.
We roomed with pigeons at the National Hotel.
And the drifters all moving west as well.
Who could tell? Who'd be drifting? Who could tell?

Just like you pictured it would happen, yeah it did.
Mountains climbing out of nowhere let us in.
As we climbed them, they make our headsets spin.
Move along. Climb on up. Come on in.

Roger's Pass pulled the wheels from under us,
But the drive moved us on, we rented more.
... And the grass in Three Valley Gap's a gas.
Move along. In a minute. Move along.

Where the road ends under water weeds are bending,
As we succumb to the rhythm of blue eyes.
Orcas black and white as green becomes an ending.
Move along. This beginning. Move along...

We went west on our very first tour.

The Fire
by Dave Bidini and Martin Tielli

Do you recall the fire? The night when you were sick?
You waved your arms and houted to your father, "Fire, quick!"
You won your first reward, the salty singing sweet of sugar sores.
That house is where we lived till 1986.
I'd surfed on waves of apprehension. Ameliorate the wind.
Apologize for snow. In the place where winter has to go.

The jagged sandy breeze. The insect sucking trees.
The cigarette butt beach rat camoputer van. (You're going nowhere.)

I left at 23 to be whom I might be.
I left for reasons almost spoiled by telling stupid lies.
The window showed his eyes.
The sound of TV, talking suffocating mother's cries...

Now I will not be told. Exploited, tricked, or sold.
You'll burn before I'm old.

I'm a tree that poisons paper. I'm a river that is angry as it's wide.
Is there nothing left to save her? Will we ever know until it dies?

I made the journey home. The house sat as it was.
I wrenched the sill and raped the vinyl. A rough and weathered door.
The cellar drunk on fuel.
The smoke that rose like silver threading spool.
I hate the way you live. (I watched the match-stick breathe.)
And all you failed to give. (And all you failed to see.)
I walked into the flowering fire from side to side to side it swayed.
Beyond the warmest warm the ceiling kisses the walls that kissed the floor.

The orange of the light. The sepulchral white.
The day exploding night.

In It Now
by Tim Vesely

Why plan instead of living life?
You worked it out ahead and put it behind.
Better look around while you're inside.
It beats looking down from angel's height.
You're in it now.

I couldn't call it anyways.
I've seen my best come from my mistakes.
Who laid these best of plans
With dirt and flowers layin' over them?
You're in it now.

Head-on with the world.
You wrote it off and moved along.
Missintention takes a turn,
Leaves you right where you belong.

Why plan instead of living life?
You worked it out ahead and put it behind.
You're in it now.

Here To There To You
by Dave Bidini

A hand to see. An eye to touch.
To miss the one I'll miss her from.
An airport's terminal repent
In warm beer left in empty tents.

When miles from you the days they inch,
They hold me in their tightened clinch.
The world gets stranger in my head.
We are poems written but never read.
Now that there's nothing left to prove.
I'll take a single step
From here to there to you.

A face that dreams, a heart that thrums.
The voice is weak, but the voice is young.
A sweet as sugar from a tree.
An elbow, finger, or a knee.
Now that there's nothing left to prove.
I'll take a single step
From here to there to you.

Love like a fevered lullabye.
A star blinking in the summer sky.
Without it there, we're an empty universe.
Shuttered skies. Poets dreaded. Beauty cursed.

The snow that falls and wets your face,
That pulls me to the deepest space
Of blood and oxygen and sweat
Down the salt river of your neck.

The Reward
by Martin Tielli

Well, here's a flower from the local king or president.
Grab the end of its stem.
The petals shake in the electric space.
It's about as plain as the smile on your face.
You're getting used to it now.
It doesn't bug you at all.
You thought a trip was a fall, but it's not.
Take a trip or take a holiday.
You finally got your reward
For which you worked hard.
Take a look at it now. You have made us so proud.

The people came, the people went.
They called you arrogant.
Now they envy your spunk.
Everyone that used to walk on by--
All the useless ones under the sky.

You're getting used to it now.
It doesn't bug you at all.
You thought a trip was a fall, but it's not. NO.
Take a trip or take a holiday.
You finally got your reward
For which you worked hard.
Take a look at it now. You have made us so...

Take me away to a big house converted into back-stage and clown train perverted
So that I might write the song devoid of metaphor.
Ugh, I am a pig. Don't listen to me.
Bacon is best when it's sal-ty.

Remain Calm
by Tim Vesely

Let's remain calm.
Let's not underestimate the calm.
When a wave take its turn,
Delivering its worth,
And never to return.
Contributing to calm.

Let's remain Calm.
Let's not forget our friend the Calm.
Hands to the side
And dropping like a stone.
Struggling subsides.
Ripples in the calm.

Let's sustain whatever brings the calm again
And refrain from rippling the calm again.
Ripples in the calm again. Ripples in the calm.

Breeze into the wind.
Let's not start what we can't end.

Let's resist the author's lines
By drowning over-actors in applause.
We could post evacuation signs
For leaving buldings and
Drowning over-actors
In applause.
Let's remain calm.

Satan Is the Whistler
by Martin Tielli

Part 1: We Are the People from Earth

In my favorite dreams there are no human beings.
There are no human beings to interrupt my dreams.
Asleep behind the moon, there are no radio waves.

Every time she speaks the words they taste too weak.
By the time they leave the skull, they are already dead.
They rise towards the moon.
There are no radio waves.
There are no radio waves there.

We are the people from earth
Ascending through the clouds.
Through the stratosphere in line ups and in piles.
We are the people from Earth.
We present ourselves as slaves.
We come as volunteers with numbers on our faces.

Part 2: The Whistler

Sitting by the fire at night.
Flames dancing in our eyes.
There was a song so long and high.

Town moved in yesterday.
Somewhere up in these hills.
On orders to go far away.
Helicoptors scared the moose away.
Satan is the whistler.

Up around the old ski lift.
Something moving in the bushes by the toolshed.
We heard a song so long and high.

Bouncers came and snuffed the fire out.
Nike, Evian, Blue.
There's no smoking in the parking lot.
Somewhere up in these hills.
Starbucks in the windy peaks.
Satan is the whistler.