(You're Always Welcome) Under My Umbrella
 
When the sun sits behind a dark cloud
You make a run for the edge of town
You try to smile just to hide your frown
But it doesn't work
Then you feel all your face aflame
Use sabotage and you curse my name,
but your memory will begin to fade
Then I disappear
 
Still you're always welcome under my umbrella
That's the line I'll try to sell you
For a short time
'Cause it's raining but you said you find my love draining
You should look at it as training when I hurt you
 
Well you think you're young it's just a time to get laid
Soon you're turning pro and when you start to get paid
Then those who talk are going to say you're his chambermaid
And it's becoming just a game of numbers
You find yourself underneath his covers
And count him as another love you don't love at all
 
But you're always welcome under my umbrella
That's the line I'll try to sell you
For a short time
'Cause it's raining but you said you find my love draining
You should look at it as training when I hurt you
 
And suddenly when you find yourself
You're older now hung up on the shelf
And still you breathe but you're in poor health
Yeah you're fading
And it's no longer just the knife that cuts you
But cold weather in the night that hunts you
You find yourself in a rut
You don't know what to do
 
But you're always welcome under my umbrella
That's the lie I'll try to tell you
To be near you
For a moment, you said don't forget this moment
I'll be gone before you know it
You don't own it.
 


Where are we now?
 
Here one day, gone the next,
Caught in this scene like some machine,
"This just doesn't work," or so you say,
"like a ghost without a sheet…"
Your next cigarette, drinking, and sex,
If anyone asks that's all you need,
Behind the wheel, you slam on the brakes,
But how could we stop at such a speed?
 
And so you walk out into the light,
You can't escape the break of day,
Cried on the stairs one Christmas night,
But all your tears won't wash away,
Just what you've done, and I'm not the one
who tried to pretend and celebrate,
Out with your friends, another year ends
Why does it feel like such a waste?
 
Where are we now, if you turn around, but you don't see me…
Lost in the crowd, feel like a clown, singing "I'm lonely…"
Head to the ground, choke on the sound, once one and only….
Not meant to be, just couldn't see, how you were unfolding….
 
But on the way, who's to say,
What this daydream radiates?
Get the kids in the car
Home from school they grab a plate,
I crawl in from work, kiss you hello
Ask what's to eat and grab your waist,
Meet the wife, in the house,
But she doesn't have your face…
 
Where are we now, if you turn around, but you don't see me…
Lost in the crowd, feel like a clown, singing "I'm lonely…"
Head to the ground, choke on the sound, once one and only….
Not meant to be, just couldn't see, how you were unfolding….
 
Now I'm alone, I sit at home,
Moonlight Mile's on the radio
To settle the score, I head for your door,
But I don't feel there's a point anymore…
 
Where are you now, if you turn around, but you don't see me…
Lost in the crowd, feel like a clown, singing "I'm lonely…"
Head to the ground, choke on the sound, once one and only….
Not meant to be, just couldn't see, how you were unfolding….
 


A Different Point of View
 
Press your boot-heel to the gas
In case you didn't know it yet
The edge of Earth ain't very far from here
And press your face up to the glass
As your falling you will see
There's really no such thing as stardust memories
If we collided with the sun,
How close would we have to be
Before we started to feel the heat?
 
Well, don't look now, it's just the sky that's falling down
But wait a minute something's wrong,
I guess that's me again, just seeing things
You laugh now, but wait til you begin to frown
When you start spinning next time round
Your dizzy head will see a different point of view…
 
And did you lose your place in line
When you drove out there to see
All of those fashionable hooligans?
Stealing moonlight with such style
When there was nothing really there
Except your cloaked invisibility?
And if we start to feel the heat
How close would we have to be
Before we all would just disintegrate?
 
Well, don't look now, it's just the sky that's falling down
But wait a minute something's wrong,
I guess that's me again, just seeing things
You laugh now, but wait til you begin to frown
When you start spinning next time round
Your dizzy head will see a different point of view…
 
And all the while, I tried to crack your smile
You broke a tooth and bit my nails
And all the charity you ever gave to me
You sent to me through the mail
But still you don't know exactly where to go
Because I took the wind right off your sails….
 
Well, don't look now, it's just the sky that's falling down
But wait a minute something's wrong,
I guess that's me again, just seeing things
You laugh now, but wait til you begin to frown
When you start spinning next time round
Your dizzy head will see a different point of view…
 
Well, don't look now, it's just the sky that's falling down
But wait a minute something's wrong,
I guess that's me again, just seeing things
You laugh now, but wait til you begin to frown
When you start spinning next time round
Your dizzy head will see a different point of view…


© Jason Jones

Bio: I am a Philadelphia-based writer and musician currently working on short stories, poetry, and Barcelona, a novel about the demise of a failed opera singer following diagnosis with a terminal illness. My writing has most recently appeared or is forthcoming in Philadelphia Stories, The Battered Suitcase, Literary Mary, Holy Cuspidor, Mississippi Crow, and Cause & Effect.