*Audio - clips are in 1.5 min lengths

*Darker Than You mp3** lyrics
*Vexed mp3 **lyrics
*Eleanor Rigby mp3
*Thin Ice mp3 **lyrics
*In the Presence of mp3 *lyrics
*Proximity mp3lyrics

*Lyrics

*Definitely darker than you.
*And not impressed by the
*best you can do
*with a smile and a gesture
            -At once dismissed
            -And confessed       
                        and disarmed
*by your Best.
*Sitting in your chair
*like your chest is straining
*from your spine, wary
*of being studied and
*inviting the very same.
*--Like someone who has practiced hard and longs to be
*confusing.
*Everybody needs someone to intercede
*--It's like gathering daisies in a desert.
*Kissing the air beside you and pretending I've touched down last
*but
*not
*least.
*Finding your thoughts, crumpled in tunnels
*dark and abstract, constructed for thoroughfare
*--Like the final thing you do before you don't (You don't!)
*There's something wrong with you...
*With the suitcases of you...
*shoved under my bed, awake, and clawing at the locks.
*Because I'm definitely darker than you and not impressed
*by the best you can do
*With a smile and a gesture (!!!)
            -At once dismissed and
            -At once confessed and
            (I admit) I'm disarmed
*by your Best.

*~J. Kelly, 2004

Vexed

*I should sleep
*But I can't, I should leave
*But I can't, I should strip the paint from the room
*Close the windows to the blinds
*Bind the door with the broom.
            Her fingers and her lies
            The hauntings that occur in the attics of her eyes
                        I don't know how you can be so calm.

*I should finish what I start
*I should put down the pen
*I must write the beginning and
*End it again.
            Her anger and wiles
            Her clever little games
            You watch as she destroys what she would rather maim.
                        I don't know how you can be so calm.

*One lover to the next
*One scorned, another vexed
*And the plot that's caught between them is unraveling.

*I'm sleeping in mid-air
*Terrified of touching down and scraping ground
*Afraid the sound of nervous laughter and defeat
*Will never leave me.
*The one who cannot meet herself in the mirror
*Never knowing which image will first look away
*And which mutation will attach itself to her face
*I stay away.
            I don't know how you can be so calm.

*One lover to the next
*Do you agree to intercede?
*Or would you rather oversee?
*The plot that's caught between you is unraveling.

*There's one lover to the next
*One scorned, another vexed
*And I'm the plot.
*That's caught.
*Between you.
            I don't know how you can be so calm.

*~J. Kelly, 2004

*Thin Ice

*'Alice' is in
*and she's on
*I've played her
*to fill the room
*and you
*should know
*by now
*by looking
*what I want and
*what I'm
            Thinking.

*When my intent
*turned and left
*for the best alone
*and by the foot of the bed
*in your makeshift room
*in my makeshift mind
*--I want from you
*what I've never
            Asked.

*And Tom says "I must be insane to go skating on your name" *
*And I can feel it through and through
*my skin is tight
*and I'm sorry
*in advance
*for wanting
*For wanting.
*I'm sorry
*--but I want
            You.

*Your fingertips on my shoulders
*I am less than half your size
*The touch of your chin on my forehead
*as we decide
*what to do
*about the rising problem of the tide
*and the pull
*and the pain
*that takes years of practice to deny
*But not this time
*And in the end
*a kiss
*will undo
            Everything.

**An excerpt from Tom Waits's song, 'Alice' (Alice, 2002)

*~J. Kelly, 2004

*In the Presence of

*You aim to please
*in a back-door-dime-store-motels-are-too-good-for-you
*kind of way.
*And me,
*I don't give a shit
*I have nothing to say about
*your tight altergirl, pervasively persuasive, lollipop-licking, catholic schoolgirl-sipping*
*Ways.

*You're a rhapsody in jeans
*You're an orgasm on the verge
*You remind me of an absinthe high
*You hint of orgies & mirrors
*You're into late night trysts
*--Naked when you're clothed and I admit
*I really
*Really
*Want to sleep with you.

*In your presence
*I'm choking then I'm drowning
*and when I'm out of breath
*nothing is so hot
*nothing is so wet
*as the atmosphere
*here
*behind the stairs
*--you're in the air.

*Darling, if I aim to please
*will you aim to repeat me?
*--in a back-door-dime-store-motels-could-be-too-good-for-me
*kind of way

*And you don't give a shit
*you have nothing to say
*but you don't
*you don't give a shit
*you have nothing to say
*About Me.

*So I never should have left
*I never should have had
*I never should have wanted
*anything so badly
*I never would have followed
*I never would have danced
*I would not have seduced
*if you had not entranced.
*I craved
*I wasted
*I hunted
*I starved.
*I am the stuff that nightmares become
*--the echo after the anger has gone.

*But light reflects from you in a very pretty way
*though I am not easily distracted.
*Led victim of the light--there's a right thing to do.
*But I can't see past the light
*So now, there's just you.

*~J. Kelly, 2005

*Proximity

*Careful.
*Be careful.
*In a careless way.
*--Sharpened kisses
*Can go both ways.

*Avoidance.
*But you always find the rhythm.
*Stepping in and out
*Of what you think you want
*--Sex.   So sexy like foreplay.   Painful.   But we're here regardless.
*I am here.

*This will be a mess.
*Something wanted so much
*Can only happen once.
*It's immediate--the onslaught of the touch.

*Your hand, my waist.  
*My hand, your face.
*Nobody saw it coming, but
*Everybody watched.

*Be careful of sharpened kisses.  
*And avoid what you think you want.
*Sexy like foreplay and pain
*But I am here anyway.

*It will be a mess.
*It is a mess--something I wanted so much...
*The onslaught of the touch.

*Your hand, my waist.
*My hand, your face.
*Nobody saw it coming, but
*Everybody watched.

*~J. Kelly, 2005