Emily Kurn

I'm Just Like You
(2008)

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1. You're Far Away
(Written in Anchorage, AK)

You're far away, you're a flash of light
in the mess of stars by Orion's side
You're far away, you're a ray of sun
On the first green leaf when the Spring has come
And I recognize you every single time
I'm always out there looking for the signs-

You're far away, in a redwood stand,
you're an alpine rose blooming from the sand
You're far away, falling from the sky
You're the April rain when the dirt is dry
And I recognize you every single time
I'm always out there looking for the signs-

Once I thought I saw you in a crowd
When you disappeared, I yelled your name out loud-

You're far away, I don't have a clue
How to get there if I wanted to-
You're far away, where I've never been
But I'll come one day and you'll let me in
'Cuz I recognize you every single time
I'm always out there looking for the signs-

2. Hotel Room
(Written in Anchorage, AK)

We spooned last night in a hotel bed
the walls were brown and the carpet was red
nickels and dimes on the hotel floor
I pulled the chain across the door
Checkout time was all too soon
We could have stayed forever in that hotel room-

The sun shone through the curtain lace
As you wrapped your arm around my waist
Lying still I could feel your heat
my hands on your hands, my feet on your feet
Checkout time was all too soon
We could have stayed forever in that hotel room-

So you played a song on your big guitar
Sweet Sweet Rose and her hidden heart
I could hear that tune a thousand times
play and rewind, play and rewind
Checkout time was all too soon
We could have stayed forever in that hotel room-

Everything has a start and end
So we packed the car to hit the road again
A cup of coffee and a double take
And I let you off at the airport gate
Checkout time was all too soon
We could have stayed forever in that hotel room-

3. I'm Just Like You
(Written in Burlington, VT)
LISTEN

We all started in the water
And we swam into the room
Where the lamps were all much brighter
Than the lighting in the womb
And the air was cold inside our lungs,
We found some comfort in our thumb,
So we stuck it in our mouth

And we wished we could go back
To that place that only we knew
But we couldn’t find the door,
Still the voice was so familiar
So we let her calm us down
And we wrapped our tiny hand around her finger

            I’m just like you, you’re just like me
            Sometimes that’s almost impossible to see
            Our blood both runs blue through our hands and our feet
            I’m just like you, you’re just like me

From the southern tip of Chile
To the valleys in Nepal,
In the castles of Great Britain
Up against the Wailing Wall
From the blackest of the black at night
The palest of the pinkish white
The yellow of the sand

In the kitchens of Fallujah,
On the shores of Vietnam
In the trees of California,
In the vines of the Amazon
Where the reindeer walk in Norway
Where the rhesus monkeys play
We all gather by the fire,
Pushing through another day

Even Plato didn’t like to be alone
Even Joan of Arc wished she could go home
Maybe William Shakespeare felt misunderstood
Maybe Jesus wished he’d stuck to working wood

4. Abalone Town
(Written in Santa Rosa, CA)

Yellow hills and the manzaneet
Tumbling falls down at Redwood Creek
I'll put the blanket on the ground
Look up hard through the granddad Oak
Lichen moss twisted thick as rope,
watch the Red Hawk float around

Hot hay, red barn, grape vine, chicken farm
Santa Rosa plum pit, purple flesh dripping down your chin

Coleman Valley to Bodega Head
Tidepools leap from their salty bed
It's abalone town
I'll go walking along the cliff
You'll bring tea if you think of it
when the mercury is down

Hot hay, red barn, grape vine, chicken farm
Santa Rosa plum pit, purple flesh dripping down your chin

Point Reyes, Dillon Beach
Muir Woods, Lagunitas
Inverness, Villa Grande
Bolinas never can be found
Hot Springs, Valley Ford
Freestone, Rohnert Park, Penngrove

Hot hay, red barn, grape vine, chicken farm
Santa Rosa plum pit, purple flesh dripping down your chin

Yellow hills and the manzaneet
Tumbling falls down at Redwood Creek
I'll put the blanket on the ground

5. No Need to Hurry Up
(Written in Anchorage, AK)

No need, no need to hurry up
No need, no need to hurry up
Time is faster than a train
Another year gone down the drown
So no need, no need to hurry up

No need, no need to hurry up
No need, no need to hurry up
Love is best when taken slow
You cannot force a rose to grow
So no need, no need to hurry up

The sad truth is the faster that you run
the sooner you'll end up right back where you'd begun
A hamster spinning on his wheel
A racer racing on a treadmill
So no need, no need to hurry up

No need, no need to hurry up
No need, no need to hurry up
It's okay if you are late
As long as you are worth the wait
So no need, no need to hurry up

No need, no need to hurry up
No need, no need to hurry up
Time is faster than a train
Another year gone down the drown
So no need, no need to hurry up

6. Let's Make a Baby
(Written in Pacifica, CA)
LISTEN

Let's make a baby, a little you and me
A little lily gazer whoh will climb our apple tree
With a smile that can warm us like the fire in the stove
And chubby cheeks the color of an Appalachian rose
Let's make a baby

Let's make a baby, a little boy or girl
A treasure map and compass who will open up our world
In winter with the chilly air and northern lights aglow
We will all together sit and watch them in the snow
Let's make a baby

Let's make a baby with 10 fingers and 10 toes
Mark up all the doorframes with a pencil as he grows
Put him in the garden with the basil growing tall
Let him touch the ladybugs and wonder at it all
Let's make a baby

Let's make a baby and I'll have him in the fall
When shadows from the harvest moon are blue upon the wall
Teach him to play piano and to never do no wrong
Someone to remember us long after we're gone
Let's make a baby

7. Light the Lamp
(Written in Anchorage, AK)

I light the candles for my great grandma
She lived in Strasbourg before the war
We share a name and we share a family
She died a year before I was born

I don't have ties to the Hebrew blessings
I don't see god in the candle's flame
But I see family in each old tradition
and so I honor them and do the same

It's how I know where I belong
It's how I feel their blood in mine
And so I light the lamp and watch it burn
And remember her, and remember her

When I was young I learned to read the Torah
I spun the dreidel and I sang the prayers
But I don't know if I felt the meaning
I don't know if my heart was there

Now I understand the old tradition
It's less for us and it's more for them
So at Hanukkah my heart aches softly
As I light my Mom's menorah again

It's how I know where I belong
It's how I feel their blood in mine
And so I light the lamp and watch it burn
And remember her, and remember her

8. Carolina
(Written in Eagle River, AK)

Carolina, sixteen cents is waiting for the children
I’ll be back in August I am trying to make a living
Digging roads and railroad ties
And mining in the mountains
And Carolina carries on through summer there without him

Carolina you have never seen so many miners
The valleys and the rivers seem to ramble on forever
Big brown bear and caribou, and singing by the fire
Sweet children tell your ma I’ll soon be standing there beside her

Carolina got the letter early Monday morning
Nothing but the weather could have fed her any warning
A widowed girl with two young boys sat crying by the poplar
And no one but the minister sat down that day to stop her

9. Symphony
(Written in Anchorage, AK)

Coming Soon...

10. The Heater's Broken
(Written in New York City, NY)

The heater's broken, the damn thing won't turn off
Open all the windows turn the air conditioner on
Kick off all the blankets from the bed onto the floor
Toss around and fall asleep and toss around some more

I dreamt I was an acrobat inside a big canoe
Rowing on a rooftop with a green flourescent shoe
Well, the boat it started burning and the heat was hard to bear
It woke me in a panic, sweat was dripping off my hair

95 degrees inside is more than I can stand
Take out all the cocoa butter and try to get a tan

11. Way Back Home
(Written in Anchorage, AK)

We didn’t try to make this happen
It sort of happened on it’s own
Now I’m so far in it’s blinding
You’re the only way back home

It’s so hard to stand beside you
When we’re somewhere in a crowd
Trying not to touch your body
Say “I love you” right out loud

And the things that aren’t perfect
Are the reasons you are mine
Just the way I look them over
Means my heart is true this time

I think it’s best that no one’s driving
It seems to move well on it’s own
And I’m so far in it’s blinding
You’re the only way back home

You’re the only way back home