Stain on My Shirt

We touched down in Beirut-town
Watching the Buildings bleed
Off to the camps we went
To tend to those in need

We were seen coming
Told we weren't wanted there
Hate for our kind was brewing
So we had best beware

We hold no flag high, I said
For we come in peace
No stain on our shirts
From that warring grease

Doesn’t matter, he said, for too much
Trouble comes from your home
Best clean out your house first
Leave the rest of us alone

On my way back I was switching planes
To Cali by JFK
Some men came to me as my bags were checked
And asked me to come this way

They searched me and searched me and searched again
As my eyes stared at the floor
Finally I asked why all the abuse
They said, “Well what’d you wear that for?”

It was the stain on my shirt they objected to
Something I wore unplanned
A phrase promoting rights and peace in
A language they didn’t understand

No, I wouldn’t take it off
For I’ve supposed rights
They tried hard to cover it up
With threats of jail and vice

But I came here to speak my mind
To take what others disregard
Where I came from I would have been shot
For trying too hard

So now I’m here and shat on again
An airport incident
But I’ve got the world on my side now
And I won’t be silent

But I came here to speak my mind
To take what others disregard
But I’ve got the world on my side now
And I won’t be silent

I won’t be silent
I’ll never be silent
Don’t ever be silent

© 2006 Helen M. Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music. Rights reserved as per CC Copyright

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Cameron

Please note: Adult Content

Otherwise...sing along!




Cameron and I spent Sunday's last breath
Sucking and fucking each other to death
We missed the twilight and the midnight moon
Hoping the week wouldn't slap us too soon

Our bed was taken by a silent shroud
Reclining under a mushroom cloud
a new day's empress was pitching a fit
I wanted to leave first, but he beat me to it

So I went to my job lobbing and shelving books
The smell of sex giving off dirty looks
All I Could do was giggle when asked of my weekend
Consoling some anger as my id rounded a bend

I'm a little too old to be giving out candy
To every guy expecting some shit for free
But when I miss giving head to mates on the floor
It's all I can do to ask for more

So its a night by the ocean in a cool bar breeze
And Cameron's chatting up some doorstop sleaze
His look to me is so hollow and sodden
The weekend is over and all but forgotten

I'm ready to show off my prowess and might
Show who's got the upper hand tonight
But the guys on the stools back off in sensation
I either look too intense or smack of desperation

So he leaves with his bag for the night
As I'm looking for a temporary Mr. Right
But the bar soon empties with noone to flame
Once again I have to concede the game

The moon shines its glowing head
Granting mercy on my empty bed
A needless gauntlet thrown at the door
And now my best friend won't see me any more



© 2006 Helen M. Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music. Rights reserved as per CC Copyright

You Can Be With Me Tonight

Sing Along!

On Monday, your family dog died
You sat on your front porch and cried
I wish I'd been there to ease your pain

Tuesday you got drunk with an old flame
Then she told you she was changing her name
Some more bait you gotta cut loose again

Wednesday, you caught the bar on the way home
Another night spent drinking alone
With your front door thrown around the bend

Thursday you went postal at your job
walked out thinking nothing could be solved
Can you see a light shining at the end?

Well, you can be with me tonight
you can be with me tonight
You can be with me tonight
Maybe I can help you win again

I've been trying to get to you for a while
Despite the way your life's going
you make me smile
Even though I know, I'm not your kind

The sweet young things you go on about
The rail thin girls you like to check out
I can't compete with that on your mind

So I put up with these playful teases
Entertaining little fantasies
Of where we would be in another time

I shaved some time off and
killed some curves
you curbed that nasty temper of yours
And everything would be just fine

And you can be with me
tonight...

And if these words ever reach you
I hope you'll think of me somehow
The friendship died long ago
And I mean nothing to you now

We were just two ships in the night
Bought and sold for free
But I know my thoughts are bigger
Than this world could ever be

I need you with me tonight
I need you with me tonight
I need you with me tonight
I can help you win again
Let me help you win again
Or I'll never see you again


©2006, 2007 Helen Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music, All Rights
Reserved

The Love Song I Never Wrote For You

Sing Along!

This is the love song I never wrote for you
I write it now because you asked me to
Unleash some of this madness from inside me

This is the love song I never wrote for you
I write it now because you're beautiful
And your inner world means the most to me

Our paths often cross
In unrelenting scenes
Of couples bound then torn
By ever-shattering dreams

Some may never see
the spark or fission
Of the thrill that comes with
Conquering a vision

This is the love song I never wrote for you
Written intoxicated through
Every sense of majesty I could find

For this love song I just wrote for you
Comes with courtesy embued
Hoping you'd respond in kind

I have always
been too afraid
To take part in
a lasting charade

A prejudice
held on too long due
to the one who long ago
left me too

We both can only express ourselves
In so many ways
Feeling some pain in our words
As we're counting the days

Until we get over the need
To Satisfy each other's greed
For some insatiable feed
On the need to tell each other
We're loved

There's always some beauty in scilence

This is the love song I never wrote for you
I write it now because you asked me to
Unleash some of this madness from inside me

This is the love song I never wrote for you
I write it now because you're beautiful
And your inner world means the most to me\

© 2006 Helen Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades.  All Rights Reserved.

Ashes (Pocket PC Demo #2)

Sing Along!

I can still close my eyes
See that blinding light
Char the distant sky

Raining down
Ashes on this
old Nevada town

This wasn't supposed to hurt us.
we thought it looked beautiful
All that atomic love
sending us angels

My auntie's world
came crashing down
the lumps in her throat
she couldn't drown

one day my dad
couldn't stand up
shriveled to the size
of his morning cup

This wasn't supposed to hurt us.
we thought it looked beautiful
All that atomic love
sending us angels

Into the courts we came
Forcing the government's hand
We all cursed the touch
The clouds made on the sand

you killed our land
You killed our land

C2006 Helen Sventitsky-Rother/Jane of All Trades Music.  All Rights Reserved, per Creative Commons License

Desert Stuff (as they currently stand...will change)

a quarter moon in a
in a nickel town
a Rise in sunlit waters
keep the twilight down

the mountains, they keep their secrets
buried in the sand 
like shadows in crawl spaces
opened up by hand

I led my horse to drink
by a dusty bar
a world of glasses turning
down the weary stair

the ghosts of old country sermons
Fill the walls in glee
Drunken  late night cowboys
Cust in unity

Niland

Running along the washed up debris
That line the banks of the Salton Sea
Loons darting to and from my hand
Nested inside a Budwiser can

The Chocolate Mountians are in full bloom
On this late Imperial afternoon
Dusted children fill the sky
As they hide from rangers driving by

Concrete romance of this place
An old abandoned Marine base
Fallen ceilings and rotting wood
On a corner where tribunals once stood

And the mail came late today
Sending welfare mothers into disarray
Lettuce pickers bow and bless
Another compadre picked up by the INS
Builder Bill has another show at the Range tonight
In Slab City where the snow birds take their flight
As long as the generator goes
You'll see the stars in forever streaming flows

Jinny

(poem adapted to music)

Jinny and I drove home
from Rick's make shift jam
in Santa Cruz;
Voice blending over
backbeats and humboldt gold

She talked of the multi nation
powwow in New Mexico
As the smoke from a
half-rolled joint tuned into
the medicine men
on her car stereo

Ancient and modern trails of tears
cover Choco Canyon;
Lost cultures poke out
for instant recognition

Refrain: In the beating of the drums
eight death battles
dance for honor

Smaller tribes
find solace in larger ones
one can even find wisdom
in shits taken in the morning

Refrain

The tribes live
with Columbus' mistakes
and had Marx beat
by 10,000 years
They say...

What rights to do the lands have
when the sky belongs
to everyone?

All Just Talk...

Sing Along!

One of these days
I'm gonna fly out the door
when the high-pass wind
comes back for more

I'll sail to Chicago
on a full-force gail;
drown in Lake Michigan
on a boat of champale

Chorus: but it's all just talk with me
it's all just talk with me
it's all just talk when you're pissing in the wind

One of these days
I'm gonna take a flight
down to the Andes
on a Saturday night

Yell with the Incas
and dance on a blade
dug from sacrifices
Macchu Piccu made

Chorus

I got drunk last night
Whattya gonna do about it
I got drunk last night
what do I have to show for it
I'm not some present to you
in fact I'm past my prime
so don't throw me in the back
of that car again
I'm not going home with you this time

One of these days
I'm gonna dream in my chair
some Arabian knight
and his flying lair

A Bedouin braveheart
will seal my hand
as we roll around
in the desert sand

Chorus

So I fucked up last night
what are you gonna do about it
I fucked up last night
And you're gonna cry about it?
Am I worth that much to you
for you to deal with me past my prime
so don't throw me in the back
of that car again
I'm not going home with you this time

One of these days
I'll make some tracks
Down to the ocean
on some seagulls back

Make my way
through the kelp forest
Sharks singing
in a coral chorus

The night blaring
as the waves smash
my body swirling
in a silvery ash

of a whirlpool diamond
of a wedding ring
flushed down the sewer
with alas, everything

Chorus

Lucretia Borgia

Lucretia Borgia
was fit to be tied
making mincemeat of
the Italian countryside

Bodies slumped over
doused in foxglove
it's a wonder
she ever found someone to love

Lucretia Borgia
came into being
a winning child bride
at the age of 14

Then somehow her lovers
were all snatched away
for roadside feasts
in the light of day

Refrain: But oh was it ever true
Did she do all those things
that they said she do
All kind words of her
were left for dead
It's just scattered pieces
of history instead

Lucretia Borgia
had made a name
among sociopaths
and criminally insane

With her dad the pope
she drank blood until dawn
And laughed as her brothers
tortured her pawns

Refrain

How could they find
a way to make
someone so unkind and vile
It's a race for the books all the while

Why is it these days
that I run a gauntlet
of rumor and subterfuge
from all who submit
that they learned all their tricks
from a previous age
when backstabbing
was all the rage

Last night Lucretia
and I had an exchange
about high schools and internet
and how nothing's changed

You get on some list
and you're treated like a whore
Until some researcher
evens the score
and asks...

Refrain

Coffee, Tea and Sympathy

Sing Along!

I'm not one to bother
with sentimental matters
that's not my style

It's been good to see
but I have no feelings for you
anymore

Yeah you know there was a time
When my light would make you shine
But that was long ago
and your heart felt the need to carry on

People tell me I'm pleasant these days
and I do try to smile and laugh alot

I've moved down the coast
to where folks swap martinis
as they watch the sun come up

It's a lonely, crazy town
everyone's so up
it's getting me down

I make the best of it
'else go mad
from the vapidity of it all

Chorus: So what did you expect from me
Coffee Tea and Sympathy
You think I'd just come running back
the way you set me free

You were so selfless (3x)
The way you left me to die
drowning in my own private hell

My self-esteem is better it seems
since I've been out here, on my own

I still fight with my demons
but I'm out on top more often
every time

No, we were never meant to work out
Typical of what my life's about
We go through this world alone
and we leave it the same way

Chorus

Thanks for meeting me today
I had time to kill
'fore my flight takes off

If you were disappointed
I don't know what to tell you
I'm already passed blown up

If I gave myself a chance to
A part of me really misses you too

Don't bother paying
I've got the whole thing covered this time

No it's nothing
It's really nothing...

As I Came to America (FKA Tiger Lilly)

We met in Saigon
in the pouring rain
you paid for a night
of my lover's flame

Within these damp paper walls
you said you'd take me home
and as the 'copters took off
I swore I still believed you then

Oh I did come over
but not with you in mind
The Northerners and the China Sea
were paying me back in kind

And in the passing days
of pirates and sharks
the battles for my body
left some permanent marks

Chorus: Didn't you wait for me
as I came to America
Didn't you wait for me
as I came to America
Could I see you come to
your senses past all meaning
Deep beneath the ground...
Deep beneath the ground

In a Java morning
mixing piss and salt air
Our boat fell victim to
an internal affair

But I was washed ashore
by a strong, forgiving tide
and hands that protected
the child I held inside

Chorus

That small life fulfilled me
as my world went on attack
not the largest of bureaucracies
could ever hold me back

And as I stepped of that plane
into this shiny world
I held my little one's hand
scared of what else would unfurl

I know that I caught your eye
In the grocery isle
And if you wife wasn't there
maybe you'd give me a smile

But as you quickly walked away
some vengance did shoot through
seeing that look upon your face
at the child that looks like you

Chorus (2x)

Yell for Help (AKA Self Empowerment 101)

(ode to Erica Platt)
(set to music by Rick Kleffel and Bill Reed)


I don't think much
of respecting myself
of protecting myself
not denying myself
my right to be

When the cameras came at me
I dug in my place
I sheltered my face
I covered my space
Let my own speak for me

I got axd questions like
Were you scared
were you charred
were you unprepared
for that from which you set yourself free

My auntie replied
she's ghetto posessed
she's God-lovin' blessed
so don't you ever mess
with a girl from South Philly

It was a sweet afternoon
runnin' down the steamin' concrete
We were playin' ball, jonesin'
off some open window's beat box beat

Licorice in my mouth
was promised by a man in the car
but all I felt was this hand
smack my head with stars

Refrain: shut up, he said
shut up, he said
(Or you'll end up dead)
shut up, he said
(noone tells me to pipe down)

I hear ghosts of my cousins
in their conversation
All the mend tied, died and blind
for all the money they crave

I felt hands bind my mouth
Block my eyes as they scream and shout
"Who the hell gave you the right
to take me away..."

Refrain

Cold quiet is my world
after the rough slam of the door
Tired from all my tears
soaked through the floor

I bless my momma, my daddy,
my grannma, my aunties, my cousins
my uncles
I feel rage of my peoples
Echo in my mind

They didn't lock the door
Damn what were they thinkin'
Some light through bars ahead
Some voices singin'

Callin' to my friends
Like a doll on a dirty shelf
It better be the last time
I ever yell for help

Dial 911

(a poem set to music by Rick Kleffel)

Sing Along!

911, can I help you?

My ears hurt

From shattering cries

of suburban housewives

searching for spouses

among vengful ruins

on their TV screens



Operator, can you hear me

my eyes are blinded

by the urgent smoke

of propaganda shots

wrapped in ink of nations;

settling wounded scores


Mother, can you hear me

I reached out to you in ICU

I saw your towers fall

Ash and crumbled stone

around your heart

I'm holding your ventilator

Keep breathing

In Your Old Apartment

(for Patty...)

Sing Along!

In your old apartment
burning insense would meet
rising piss from the street
As guests would dance and melt into
your niece's finger paintings on the walls

In your old apartment
The pasta making set
was always bathed in kitchen sweat
With ever changing roommates and
neighbors passing as revolving doors

You started your Fridays with
A few sips of chianti
And some leaves left inside
a pipe that were
dumped into some brownies

Soul on the stereo
As the whole world would come in
Watching walls bend and fold
Into laughter's growing din

In your old apartment
Morning light'd shine with flair
on dirty dishes everywhere
And the lace curtains that hid your bedroom window
tussled wildly in the breeze

In your old apartment
We would climb to the rooftop
On a cold afternoon
And tell ourselves what lucky bastards
we were to be living in this town

for even tho'…
You could be mugged at any time
Some gutter
could be a river of Thunderbird wine
And the children
Were too scared of their own minds

There was no better place on earth
for lives to intertwine
And this broken building off dirty 6th Street
Was sitting on a goldmine

Why else would anyone come to
This fog infested sunshine

In your new apartment
I can hear voices beseech
from the ends of Venice Beach
When the fireworks and food would be
on display from your hands once again

In your new apartment
all the years in Tuscany
Are just a recent memory
Save for photos
passing through our hands
covered with chubby Italian smiles

Yeah, It's a shame the things
You are told to do
As you await your lover's
papers to come through
In the meantime there's a night to make
And friends to take in hand
For tho' half the people here don't know you
There's another goldmine to be had...

Ten Years On

Sing Along!

You said it wasn't like the last time
I stopped on the way to your house
I screamed like a banshee through the ceiling
You held your breath as you got out

I went to work at the cafe
saw your face in the window
I pointed at my watch
You never got my hints, did you?

I never wanted anyone
anymore than I wanted you
Now that it's been ten years on
The worm has started to turn

You say it wasn't like the last time
I lay faced down in your bed
You thought that I was crying
Don't give yourself that much credit

I could be buying groceries
or doing laundry
or dancing in a club

But after many years of wishing
your life on a string
I've snapped out of it
and moved on

I never wanted anyone
anymore than I wanted you
Now that it's been ten years on
The other shoe has dropped

You say I've always been a benefit
But it's an inconvenience to get to know me
Stupid me, all I wanted was to be a part of your lfie
Yeah, I'm high-maintenance that way

Too Damn Real

Sing Along!

Don't say you love me
It's just the moonshine talkin'
I've been a widow since noon
When your eyes started walkin'

See that girl in the desert
She's a starlight in the field
I know you snuff her candles at night
And in the mornin' leave her concealed

Don't talk to me about your mystery
I know you too damn well
You like a girl who hides herself
And I'm just too damn real

Don't tell you love me
As you look out into space
I've been workin' the line, and know that time
Has taken a toll on your face

I could never bring myself
To drink the whiskey you make
Another 'hoe in your cotton field
Is about all I can take

Don't talk to me about your mystery
I know you too damn well
You like a girl who hides herself
And I'm just too damn real

I hear your women singing
Sweet songs to you in the back
You can slap me down so many times
Before my eyes tell you what's up"

Don't talk to me about your mystery
I know you too damn well
You like a girl who hides herself
And I'm just too damn real

If All The World Were Like New York City...

powered by ODEO

If all the world were like new york city
A walk through concrete ecstacy
Stars would beg to be neon streams
In the Manhattan island of your dreams

Peace on a Brooklyn night
Joined in varied lives
And the event any of this were true
I'd love you and I'd hate you and I'd need you too

If all the world were like San Francisco
Back from digital ashes below
Hills would awake to cable cars
Passing Victorian demi-stars

Love would be discreet
Down on Market Street

And the event all of this were true
I'd love you and I'd hate you and I'd need you too

Held my soul to my vest
On Central Park and West
Slips of fortune cast away
Along Grant Avenue and Broadway

Over my shoulder I hear
Bowery breathing in my ear
And to my left I see
Hunters' Point falling to the sea

If all the world were like Now York City
And San Francisco traded in beauty
for every beg and plea for a coin
Lining the streets of the Tenderloin

We still face hunger at the feast
Staring down the belly of the beast

And the event any of this were true
I'd love you and I'd hate you and I'd need you too

But the towers are no more
saved in bits of lore
For my sister's sake
Dive into the next earthquake

And in the event any of this were true
I'd love you and I'd hate you and I'd need you too

Ballad of Phoolan Devi

Sing Along!

Phoolan Devi
was a tempest child
Grown with fury
Into freedom run wild

Ghosts in ravines
of Uttar Pradesh tell
Of a caste goddess cry,
"This body's not for sale."

Phoolan Devi
came from fisherman stock,
Sold as a girl
For a family lot

She ran back home
To a village's hell
But she stood fast and screamed
"This body's not for sale."

Phoolan Devi
Started running with dacoits
Stood by her man
As she pumped his exploits

When Thakurs shot him
And raped her into hell
She stood fast and screamed,
"This body's not for sale"

Phoolan Devi
Took revenge in stride
20 men dead
At Benmai one night

The law stood by
As masses wished her well
She threw her voice around,
"Your body's not for sale"

Phoolan Devi
Spent 11 years alone
Small price to pay
For liberation shown

Tho' guns got her
For living too well
The mantra lives on,
"Your body's not for sale"

It Got You Too

A sediment LA morning
The telegenic inquistion
Time once again to put on
My sunny disposition

Last night's party had some industry
Droppin' names like flies
I saw you laughing, smilin'
Caught up in their lies

It got you too
It got you too
The chicken hawks clutchin' deep and hard
Scopin' out Wilshire Boulevard
It got you too
It got you too
With the company pimps in Gucci suits
Hanging out at Spago's bearing fruit
It got you too.

I spent the morning fluffing these girls
Shining cogs in the machinery
Lined up for a chance to work as
Part of the scenery

Tracing my steps through the sunshine
And the fake orgasmic cries
You waiting your take in sprayed on tears
Caught up in their lies

It got you too
It got you too
Like some angel who fell asleep too soon
stepping over dead bodies in the Viper Room
It got you too
It got you too
Playin' carefree baby and makeshift flirt
While you're takin' peyote in the desert
It got you too

This morning, you'd swear
you'd see your body shine
Over the drama around you baby
Despite my better judgement
I believed you at the time

I remember us plotting and planning
Gonna plunder this scene
Now I watch you getting greased down
Wishin' you'd escape this dream

I've done my bit for the cause
Goin' legit for the last time
So, with my 8 x 10 in hand,
Like a junkie, I stand in line

It got me too
It got me too
Once again, I'm enacting a desperate plea
For some horny camera to set me free
It got me too
It got me too
I'm a pawn in some producer's pearl
Wrapped up in the windshield of the world

Just This Side of Eden

Sing Along!

I've got an old friend
that blows down the road
into your childhood room

Where other ghosts play
behind battered doorways
and under quilted beds

Half eaten chocolate pirates
and golden coins abound
We laugh as children used to at
ill gotten booty found

Summer sunset yesterday
Cool breeze took some pain away
On this side of Eden
just this side of Eden

She waits for you
Inside dusty rooms
downstairs by the velvet bar
Where women had their broken hands held out
to passing faded stars

We heard you sing your vows
and other stranded lies
As your careless fingers
Crawled on wedded thighs

Another deal fell thru
from too many wanting you
just this side of Eden
just this side of Eden

Yeah, she took her life in vain
I thought I'd help her be forever free
Now I'm trapped here hearing her cry
"He gave her what he couldn't give to me."

Now she wanders like a cat throughout the years
My boards her only comfort rot with all her tears

This house won't go as quietly
No matter how long you've abandoned me
Just this side of Eden