Benny Lava

Your vision is perfect
Mine has been corrected
But the end result is the same
Or so they say
One day you'll see like I do
The rings and flashes on the streetlights
At night, passing by
And you'll know why I can't sleep
Until the world's gone hazy

But you'll never understand the world I see
I'll never understand the one you're part of
Here between our hands we meet - one moment -
Are you thinking what I'm thinking
Likely the answer is no

I come from an island
You from the wide open plains
But you understand the things I say
In your own way
One day you'll have to ride off
Into the sunset, and I'll go back to my books
You'll have your memories
I'll have mine, and I'll never be the same
Because they'll never be the same

You know, we could try
Live in sync, bridge the gap,
Match your mind to mine
But these words don't make sense
My loony bun is fine
We're running out of time

You'll never understand the world I see
I'll never understand the one you're part of
Here between our hands we meet - one moment -
Are you thinking what I'm thinking
Likely the answer is no

Solstice Alexandrine

If you arrive in white against this winter sky
I won't remember if you'd ever come, or why
I'd called you to my side, or if I'd called at all
Or if I'd dreamt our meeting, lonely in my mind

If you arrive in blue, the rainy season's end
Has come along with you, the one who I call friend
The clouds will clear away, the whitest flowers sway
And maybe you will stay through autumn's gathering-in

If you arrive in red, adorned in burning flame,
The words you left unsaid, the love without a name
Blooms in prismatic hues, in courage and in truth,
And love will be with you, always and still the same

If you arrive in black upon these shortest days
And you do not turn back, but on untrodden ways
You chart your path with light, creating stars for sight,
Then out of deepest night you'll set the world ablaze

If you arrive in gold, the summer will return
But tales and songs of old, from which we can't but learn
Remind us it will pass, the warmth that never lasts,
And in the end we have just moments, and we yearn

You'll arrive in season, or maybe out of time
You don't need a reason, I don't need a rhyme
But I'll wait in this snow, then when it's late you'll go
And when you're gone I'll know each second is sublime

The sky opens up

They gave the prodigal son a feast on his return
And the teary-eyed family was reunited
Memories of years before fondly recalled at the dinner table
But there was more to the conversation --
The things he had learned, he wanted to share
The old stories told week after week, he had seen those places
And they were nothing like we thought! Can you imagine, he said,
How we have made heroes of ordinary men
And lived this legend
As if it were the only one existing?
But there's so many more, much more, dozens, thousands,
The sky opens up when you turn your eyes to it --
And the table grows quiet
The clatter of dishes deafening
The youngest ones visibly disturbed
And the elders excusing themselves in silence

And there is talk, behind closed doors, in the library, in the study
He has lived so well on his own
He has learned so much; a credit to the clan
But it is for the best that this home,
At once familiar and strange in his eyes,
Be only a place of temporary respite
For there is no longer a place for him here

The way you are

The word for the way you are
Does not exist in my language
Which is why I fall silent
As you appear,
The angle of your smile
The waterfall of words
The logical conclusion
Of a microcosm's history
Standing in front of me

As you disappear,
First with apologies,
Then with nothing
And the silence says
As much as the smile

I pore over texts and volumes
In twenty-seven languages
Learning grammar, context, culture
Hoping to stumble
Over a protagonist's description
To solve the mystery of you

Until the day arrives
Until the perfect word is found
The description, the explanation
Until then,
Silence will speak for me

Perspective

What used to be obsidian
Now sparkling black like mica
But the properties never changed
Only my angle of vision did
What did I see? How did I see?
How had I not seen before?
I close my eyes now
Only matte neutral colors remain
But for a few moments I glimpsed
Here on the solid earth's surface
An entire universe of stars
In a dark corner of the afternoon sky

Post Party Girl

I'm not adjusting to this silence well
The music's off but I'm still on
The lights are up, the night is over
But I'm not ready To go home yet

They say there's time for magic
And there's a time to let it go
But there's a few moments left to live
Just turn the music on

{Let the stars align one more time
Take me dancing till the sun rise
It's all right
We'll ride this wave till it's over } - 2
In another life

It's only midnight now so turn the wheel
Let the music flow as time goes backward
Help me remember how it used to feel
The memory of an hour ago

The room was full of light then
The mood was so exciting
If the world had ended, I wouldn't care
You were there beside me
And everything around me
Disappeared

Hero for the Day

Written as an assignment for my Coursera songwriting course. You can hear it here: https://soundcloud.com/andreamandal/herofortheday-full-fade
Loop was provided with course materials. 

It's a rainy summer evening
And circumstance has brought us here
A forgotten tune is playing
You're keeping time
And the song, it fills my ears

The meaning's coming clearer
As you're slowly drawing nearer
You never thought we'd be here
But I know that you'll deliver

Can you be a hero for the day?
Can you feel the flood rush in your veins
Can't you feel it baby?
That you're driving me crazy?
You tripped into my arms
And you fell into my heart
This can't be real

You're the storm and you're the shelter
We're drenched and drowning in the rain
Thunder crash -- you hold me closer
Your body next to mine
And I lose myself again

You stumbled into me, then
We both fell in the deep end
Your eyes said stay with  me, and
Mine said "only for the weekend"

Can you be a hero for the day?
Can you feel the flood rush in your veins
Can't you feel it baby?
That you're driving me crazy?
You tripped into my arms
And you fell into my heart
This can't be real

When the storm has passed  (You're the storm and the shelter)
We'll go our separate ways (You're everything you need to be just when you need to be that)
The good things never last (The good things they take time but never ever last)
And what would they say, anyway ... ?

Can you be a hero -- just for today --
Feel the flood rush in your veins
Can't you feel it baby?
That you're driving me crazy?
You tripped into my arms
And you fell into my heart
This can't be ...