I wrote some words to go along with my song, “Trazodone/Valerio/Coda.” They’re not meant to be lyrics, just some impressions that came to me when I was thinking of the things that inspired the music.

TRAZODONE

Cat stretches out against your back
Reach under your pillow to find the cool spot
You’re in a space ship
Safe from radiation
Set free to look at the stars
Weightless floating high and higher

VALERIO

Temporary sidewalks
You’re not meant to walk here
We’re not fashionable enough to live downtown
We’re not pretty enough for Beverly Hills
We’re the poor but not too poor to be
Shown on TV B-rolls to represent the poor
With the weight of all the valley air on top of us

Here is the furniture abandoned and unwanted
Outlived its usefulness about twenty years ago
It found a place on the curb
Deafening noise of trucks and cars and SUVs
And trash heaps and old mattresses
The beautification committee is afraid to come
They only come when they’re looking to score

Here come the racers at 2 am
You can’t miss this
No you really can’t sleep through this
RPMs howl the story to each and every block
Through windows open or windows closed
And sometimes the whining engines cut off
In a slamming of metal on metal

Here we have the people springing forth
Indeterminate hues from dust and sun
Fighting for air heavy in the summer
Thick in the winter
Always the constant jet whoosh of tire and asphalt
Pausing by dry riverbeds all concrete and shrub
Each rare tree a middle finger to someone who deserves it

CODA

The quiet at last
All love all peace
It is the night
Breathing on you
And you fall to the roof
Of the stars