DON’T LET ME DIE IN CALIFORNIA don’t let me die in California with its fires raging up into the sky you’re on your own in California and no one there will notice if you die I spend my days in the same protracted haze chasing some dream like all the rest never asked the sense of staying out in this mess with forty million of my closest friends I set out in the west always heard it was second best so I headed for the coast with a girl I loved the most and she could never tell me why when we made it there she cried and she turned around and made her way back home she said don’t let me die in California with its vast expanses and its endless sky you’re on your own in California and no one there will mourn you if you die every day is new and yet they look just like all the rest and the years go flying by I set out in the west always heard it was second best so I headed for the coast with a girl I loved the most and she could never tell me why but when she broke down and cried with a tear there in her eye she said to me: don’t let me die in California it’s no place to be out on your own you’re all alone in California and it’s a long, long way from home ©2023 Joe Forkan

HANGMAN high above the mob with a rope around my neck and the bird of prey circle overhead so I close my eyes and pray for a touch of grace and I find not a trace as the sun rose higher I thought I recognized in the crowd the sound of her voice it’s a silver lining but I can take the fall if she’s gonna watch it all through those eyes well, who am I? god knows me but he would deny it under battle flags the lines were drawn I had my chance but I let it go the hangman says the gallows longs for me wouldn’t run couldn’t hide I’d do anything for those cold dark eyes l took the blame now this is on my head sweet young girl caught the devil’s eye when she fled her home on the Santa Fe line threw her arms around my neck for a life by the gun taking all we could get when the law caught up in that desert town she wore a smile when she put ‘em down so, sing your songs, I’ll tell my lies just forge my name in the book of life should’ve recognized what I saw in her eyes now this is on my head I would never run I could never hide from a last embrace before the other side I feel her arms around my neck should’ve recognized what I saw in her eyes now this is on my head ©2023 Joe Forkan

LEAVE IT ALL BEHIND the night passed like a kidney stone she broke down once she was on her own she’d been staring at an empty man in an empty room with an empty hand leaving everything behind that reminds her of this time so her busted little life will never be the same fa la la la la the day broke, it was poorly made roughly handled it could not be saved she left a hurried note by the draining board railway ticket and she was gone she didn’t make an impression more of an indentation in the soft heart of the man now his busted little life will never be the same fa la la la la leaving everything behind in her restlessness and her worried mind off to see what she can find night fell rather clumsily turned an ankle and it skinned a knee sunset up another round left him drinking on the edge of town he meant to fall down on his knees but he missed his mark left him lying in the weeds can’t stand up for lying down gonna never be the same fa la la la la la la leaving everything behind but her restlessness and her worried mind now that’s all she’s gonna find the days dragged him around the room all those should’ve-dones and what-to-dos he ran hot and cold with the midnight calls though she came back he was gone she left everything behind but her restlessness and her worried mind now that’s all she’s gonna find so if you leave it all behind leave your restlessness and your worried mind or that’s all you’ll ever find ©2023 Joe Forkan

IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT we never made promises so there were none to break but the heart makes its own plans well, our paths diverged you know the world has ways to pull things from our grasp I was so surprised to get your call but I guess you just never know you said there’s still some things to say and could I come around the next time I was back in that little town we’d said no goodbye in the heat of that night just some words said in haste they still hung in my mind you smile when you see me I finally start breathing the time and the miles fading slowly away you look somehow different I realize a sadness has gone from your eyes there’s just too many questions there’s no point in asking because we already know but there in the silence of the fading light was all that we needed to put it all right we said our goodbyes in the dark of the night let the past fall away put the future aside when it’s all been said and it’s all been said we can’t protest our innocence words are bitter recompense some things are just better said with a touch we said our goodbyes in the dark of the night let the past fall away put the future aside we said our goodbyes in the dark of the night one last embrace one final time ©2023 Joe Forkan

NOT MUCH on the endless freeway and late for work again I was crawling in the fast lane on the westbound 10 spied a pedestrian in my rear view much to my alarm he was moving with a swagger between the overheating cars he was a tall man in a rumpled, 3-piece suit and he stared into my window as he loomed into view with a devil’s grin and a tightly focused gaze he said: boy, is this really how you want to be spending your days? I found this quite unusual, it was 9:05 it’s not an everyday occurrence on my morning drive he almost seemed to know me well, I offered him a ride we wound up swapping tired stories about the daily grind he said it’s not much of a journey when you’re travelling this way not much to hope for with how you’re earning your pay not much of a conversation if you’ve got nothing left to say well, I said who are you exactly and what’s all this to you? he seemed amused by my annoyance tried to shift my point of view he said: is this all you dreamed of or did you want to make a little noise? how’d you ever make so many obvious choices? it’s not much of an adventure just trying to survive not much of romance if it don’t make you feel alive not much of a car if it don’t make you want to drive not that it was any of his business but in all of this strife I found myself trying to justify my tidy little life I had made some choices I admit to some compromise but I thought I’d, you know, give myself a little easier time he said it’s not much of a dream if it’s there within reach not much of a crime if they don’t barricade the streets not much of a thought if you can fit it in a tweet you know, everyone is moving with so many plans only thinking about where they wind up once the travelling ends better look out of those windows and take the broader view this highway ain’t as long as it may appear to you not much of a joke if it don’t make you laugh out loud not much of a fire if it doesn’t draw a crowd not much of a life if you’ll just go quietly into the ground by then the cars had stopped completely and the road grew very still we’d come rolling to a stop beyond a taco bell I looked over at my companion that man he was gone but I heard his voice inside my head and before too long I saw the traffic was still moving going back the other way I took a moment to consider but there was nothing left to say I just shut off the ignition and I jumped the center wall looking for a ride going anywhere at all not much of a story if you know how its gonna end not much of a confession without a little sin not much to lose if there’s nothing you can win ©2023 Joe Forkan

GONE this song may never reach its destination this song may never rise into the air this song is just a private conversation I was hoping that someday you’d want to share but we float above in thought balloons convalescing in our empty rooms mishearing words in each and every line down along a lonely track she’s rolling dice to win him back but he’s gone, gone, gone, gone, gone this song might count as a confession this song has photos I’d pay to suppress this song don’t advocate you playing with matches but the pension fund is just sitting there this song is just a signal flare a hail mary hanging in the air a base attempt to get make you look again but you’re waiting for the governor’s midnight call or someone else to climb your prison wall and I just can’t get out of bed this song is the wit at the bottom of the staircase this song is just weighing on your mind down along a lonely track she’s rolling dice to win him back but he’s gone, gone, gone, gone, gone if these were actual events if I were actual size if I were closer than I appear in the mirror I might attempt to take you for a ride we might take us some liberties explore the possibilities or just disappear into the air down along a lonely track she’s rolling dice to win him back but he’s gone and she can’t say where if I could bring you near if I were actually here I could tell you every dream in my heart but you keep flipping through the radio dial ticking off the endless miles this song is feeding quarters in the jukebox this song is just crying in its beer down along a lonely track she’s rolling dice to win him back where he’s gone well, it’s just not clear if I could bring you near if I was actually here I could tell you every dream in my heart but you keep flipping through the radio dial ticking off the endless miles gone gone gone ©2023 Joe Forkan

SHADOW MEMORY burned by the fires swallowed by the sands lost to the oceans scattered to the winds all that remains of cities once standing defiant and dark against the sky cathedrals spires and fortress towers reach into the night no terms for their surrender just the passing hours well, the bombing has begun fair enough coming closer closer still this change in the air one final hour a bluff and a dare mask a silent prayer well, the bombing has begun fair enough ©2023 Music by Joe Forkan & John Convertino, Lyrics by Joe Forkan

MARQUEE thought our names would be over the title of a story as big as the screen up there, side-by-side together we’d ride the wide-open plains of our dreams rerun Saturdays, all those old matinees adventures played out in the dark in our own private world we were untried and unsure but convinced that we’d have it our way pot metal pistols and old stetson hats cheap rolls of caps and those candy cigarettes childhood dreams and us there, side-by-side and into the sunset we’d ride then came all those more serious questions and the choices of who we should be with the years passing by just like clouds in the sky drifting through on a warm summer’s day pot metal pistols and old stetson hats cheap rolls of caps and those candy cigarettes down through the valleys and the high chaparral villains and heroes in the tales that we tell all those days far behind come rushing back like a prairie fire Well, our names might not be over the title but the stories are still ours to tell all the time we were dreaming together was the life we were longing to live pot metal pistols and old stetson hats cheap rolls of caps and those candy cigarettes childhood dreams, and us there, side-by-side and into the sunset we’ll ride we’ll ride ©2023 Joe Forkan