My anthems 1

    I heard this around 7th or 8th grade on KITS 105. something FM in San Francisco, once again like a decade or more later and just now I finally remembered to look it up now that I have regular internet access.  To me it was a very beautiful and pithy song then, now I realize just repeating the title and humming the tune must have made an indelible mark on my psyche.  Still unmarried and never married at 34, the song makes me think of rain on rail tracks and trying to communicate love through a telephone....promising, 'I'll be there soon.'
    Men aren't supposed to make women cry, that's what we are taught from our boyhood, do anything, just don't break a woman's heart.  Pray, sin, drink, dwell, sing....but love her stronger, that isn't necessarily always the lesson.  Love can't be eaten and that thought becomes so burdensome that it can keep a man' heart from ever growing.  How can love grow to the size of a forest when a yearling is frozen by fear of eviction and final notices? The best things come for free....how are they enjoyed by a body lacking sleep?  Sex is a chore to an exhausted, frustrated man....to be held, like a child with no words said, goes farther than passion ofttimes when a man burns from slights and avarice.  James Brown adds that man is lost in the wilderness and "he's lost; in bitterness" and the song fades out. 
    Lost with a torch in the wilderness, pursued by the same darkness he just walked through, he destroys any capacity to fall back into the darkness....burning the bridges no matter how beautiful and useful.  What kind of man could this be, too busy for love and life? A man just like me.

 Earn enough for us by XTC

I've been praying all the week through
At home, at work and on the bus
I've been
praying I can keep you
And to earn enough for us
I can take humiliation
And
hurtful comments from the boss
I'm just praying by the weekend
I can earn enough for
us
Found a house that won't repair itself
With it's windows cracking
And a roof
held together with holes
Just because we're at the bottom of the ladder
We shouldn't
be sadder
Than others like us
Who have goals for the betterment of life
Glad
that you want to be my wife, but honest
I've been praying all the week through
At home
at work and on the bus
I've been praying I can keep you
And to earn enough for us

So you're saying that we're going to be three
Now, a father's what I'll be

Don't get me wrong, I'm so proud
But the belt's already tight
I'll get another job at
night, but honest
I can take humiliation
And hurtful comments from the boss
I'm
just praying by the weekend
I can earn enough for us
Just because we're at the bottom
of the ladder
We shouldn't be sadder
Than others like us
Who have goals for the
betterment of life
Glad that you want to be my wife, but honest
I can take humiliation

And hurtful comments from the Boss
I'm just praying by the weekend
I can earn
enough for us
I can earn enough for us