Just Because
Last Train
By Elizabeth Moliter
Verse 1
On the last car of the last train
Heading north from Washington Square
She’s staring out the window
There’s nothing but darkness there.
Verse 2
The swing of the car rocks the riders to sleep
But she’s wide-eyed and wide-awake
The pulse of the train and the songs in her brain
Are almost more than she can take.
Chorus
Where are you going, where are you going, now?
What will you see there?
Who will you be there?
Oh, oh, oh
Verse 3
There’s a tear in her eye for the days gone by
And the life she’ll leave behind
But she’s glad for the ride and the music inside
And the company of her kind.
Repeat Chorus
Verse 4
The window is a mirror
And she’s looking back at me
We ride underground in my old hometown
Up to 42nd, 42nd Street.
Bridge
Why would I want to take her away
From the world she loves so well?
From the pace she’s known,
And the place she’s grown
Into a woman with stories to tell?
Repeat Chorus
Verse 5
On the last car of the last train
On the last day of old dreams
She’s staring out the window
And something in the darkness gleams.
DISAPPEAR
by Laura Moliter
Disappear, inside a life;
lose yourself, be the night.
Stealthy heart, and noisy mind;
take your spot on the sidelines.
Disappear, be light and quick.
Evade the world, like a magic trick.
Watch and pray that no one sees
your crazy ways, your empty fears.
Chorus:
Be small and wonder,
be humble and ponder.
Make your body light,
so you can slip away.
Verse:
Disappear, but leave a trace
to find yourself inside the maze.
Disappear, be lean and strong,
with no excess to drag along
Chorus
Bridge
Hidden in plain sight.
anonymous.
the poet’s dream,
and light enough, to get carried away.
Verse:
Disappear, is it too late?
A light is shining on your face.
Disappear, you have been seen.
You have been loved. You have been loved.
Thank God for You
by Elizabeth Moliter
Verse 1
We soared like a rocket
Exploded like a bomb
And sometimes lay on tender days
Safe in each other’s arms.
Verse 2
Those days are far behind us
Looks like you won the war.
The stillness that I dreamed about
Came crashing through my door.
Chorus
But [Now] I thank God for what we had.
For the sweetness and anguish
The good times and the bad.
Thank God you found your someone.
Guess I found something, too.
Thank God for love and laughter.
Thank God, my friend
For you.
Verse 3
Your song still plays inside me.
Your voice still fills my head.
I replay favorite memories
Of the funny things you said.
Verse 4
The pain is painted over.
A sea of tears run dry.
You sailed away rejoicing
I’m alone, but I’m alive.
Bridge
I’m not the one you needed.
I should have told you so.
I guess I didn’t know it
Until you let me go.
Repeat Chorus
Just Because
by Laura Moliter
Made a date with destiny.
She stood me up again.
Or maybe it was that old map
that led me back to then.
Gave it all a second chance,
I’m generous with my doubts.
There is a place where living lives
out past the round about.
Chorus:
Desire is the fire at disappointment’s fraying edge,
that saves the haunted hoper from his suicidal ledge.
Verse:
I look at desperate women.
I look at angry men.
I see the raging majesty
that makes them rise again.
I saw a hill I could not climb,
A song I could not sing.
Sometimes the only way to win
is in the in between.
Repeat Chorus
Bridge:
If Icarus could rise again, I think he’d take it slow.
He’d hover in the atmosphere with somewhere left to go.
Verse:
The lines are in a pleasant place,
the rhymes are left to cool.
The winter child just froze again.
She’s always been a fool.
The weak are strong, they don’t expect—
they play the hand and bless the deck.
Their lines are lines, not poetry.
They speak in silence, bury dreams.
Repeat Chorus
I sing this song in praise of us for being born and
just because.
It’s Better Now
By Elizabeth Moliter
Verse 1
You grow stronger every day.
You’ve found a way to stay away.
There’s someone new to hold you
When the winds begin to blow.
Verse 2
I grow wiser every day.
I’ve found the strength to stay away.
The storms have blown to sea
And my mind begins to clear.
Chorus
It’s better now.
I’m wiser now.
We’re stronger now.
Where are you now?
Where are you now?
Verse 3
It’s so easy to be free
No one there to tell you “no.”
You can do just as you please,
Not wonder if he’ll stay or go.
Repeat Chorus
Bridge
Yes, I know
You had to go
But who will I be
Without you and me?
Verse 4
No more footsteps in the hall.
No whistling on the stairs.
But I still can hear you call
My name when you’re not there
Repeat chorus
Heaven is the Train
by Laura Moliter
And it’s all been said before.
Stop the drumroll at the door.
I come in in borrowed clothes;
garments woven of old prose.
Well, I haven’t slept a wink.
Or maybe I am sleeping now.
And I’m standing on the brink.
I will leap or I will drown.
Chorus:
And I’ve taken every road that I can take.
And still looking for one more.
Maybe heaven is the train,
and not the station or the shore
There’s a crazy kind of sane
that looks for endings that are clear—
a box of days tied with a bow.
Read the ending, lose the fear.
I have tasted life like wine.
No glass empty, some still full.
I have touched on worlds sublime,
and then forgotten like a fool
Chorus
Bridge:
Apathy and ecstasy
chase each other’s tails.
Nothing can be everything,
that shiny key can fail.
All I know is I don’t know…
And the time is getting late.
Twilight sings a lullaby.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Maybe tomorrow I will fly.
Time is a wheel
By Elizabeth Moliter
VERSE 1
Life is not a train
To end of the line.
Or a race we run
To beat our best time.
Going in one direction,
Climbing to the top of the stair,
Or falling to the bottom and lying there.
CHORUS 1
Life is carousel
Turning and turning around.
A circle never broken
Riders going up and down.
Grab the ring and keep spinning
Around.
VERSE 2
You walk with weary steps
And see with tired eyes,
Carefully treading
Battling the lies.
Looking in one direction,
Waiting for the end of the road.
Or plugging along,
Doing as you’re told.
CHORUS 2
Time is a Ferris wheel
Turning and turning round.
A circle never broken,
With thrilling ups and downs.
Ever alive and spinning
Around.
BRIDGE
It’s painful to lose,
But heaven to strive.
To fall and to stand.
To really feel alive!
VERSE 3
The sun goes down
When the day is old.
Rising in the morning
Brilliant and bold.
Warming God’s reflections,
Bringing healing light,
Guiding our way
To a peaceful night.
CHORUS 3
If time is a “circle game”
Like my girl, Joni, says,
Then maybe tomorrow
There are better dreams ahead.
This game is not for winning.
So, keep spinning, turning, dancing, living,
Loving…instead.
Where I Stand
by Laura Moliter
Misty eyes through years of haze.
Walking dead through glory days.
What a waste to play the game,
to buy the goods and lose my name.
Had this dream, what was it now?
I can’t recall the why or how.
My burden was a fool mistake,
some sorry case I tried to make.
Chorus:
Can’t be broken, I’m too strong.
Known the true life all along.
Get my treasure for a song.
My story starts today…
Verse:
Candid camera in my mind,
caught myself in bad design.
Can’t go back, I chose the line.
Is it too late to leave this time?
Born to be my destiny.
Lost my pride in search of me.
Now I’m gaining on myself,
the girl waiting in the snow.
Repeat chorus
Bridge:
Now is now and full of life.
Baptized clean but not by fire.
Horizon line is where I stand.
Horizon line is where I stand.
My whole life is where I stand.
Verse:
Don’t panic now it’s gonna be,
a day that has no memory,
a day that isn’t spent in dreams
or found in “ifs” and “whens.”
Rewind moves fast and forward slow,
standing still here in the snow,
just like back when I was new,
and not the child of time…
Repeat Chorus