Lyrics

Between the

water and you

By John Cameron Mitchell

and Lance Horne

lets go
what do i owe 
i’m caught 
between the water 
and you
what do i do

i thought
i could stay here 
forever
i thought i was so clever
that he’d never notice 
like the sun or the wind
or whatever

i can’t see through
out of the blue
we fought
as if we were two
when we were
pale blue
way past due
 

we bought

what we thought would 

save us

the price was high

but so was i

and you taught me to

find a way to

break through

out of the blue

so softly

you taught me 

how to 

make do

between the water and you

Sophia

By John Cameron Mitchell

and Izae

oh sophia you never fit in above

oh sophia so you joined us down below

to show how far you could go

your daddy told you you’d not last a day

his little stowaway

your mama told you to stay

but you can’t wait 

to miss them

you’ve lost the plot

your brow is hot

in the yard is a tree

hung with toys

for dead little girls and boys

that’s their fate

but one always hangs oneself too late

you asked me how does the story end

i said all stories end the same  

if you take them far enough

you’ve got them eating out of your hand

but now you fear for your hand

you always go without saying

your sweet smile is fraying

splintered on wooden teeth

they’ll peel you like a grape

oh sophia you come from such great wealth

oh sophia now you are beside yourself

i’m a close friend of a friend

and i loved you as much as i could

but i think we can agree

if it’s down to you and me 

id choose me 

if it’s down to me and you

you’ll choose

you are full of something good and bad

you are stuffed with your own predator

as you flee your creditors

death minus god equals science

death minus science equals god

but god minus death equals nothing

you lay upon the earth as upon a man

buried alive in the air around you

but the sunlight lays upon the earth 

as upon a woman

this is your lucid dream

youve lost the plot

your brow is hot

in the yard there is a tree

hung with toys

for your dead little girls and boys

that’s their fate

but one always hangs oneself too late

don’t ask me how your story ends

all stories end the same 

if you take them all the way

he lay upon you as upon the earth

buried alive in his afterbirth

but the sunlight lays upon you 

as a child upon your breast

its kiss seemed obscene like a lucid scream

let me hold you and help you sleep

for we are all geniuses 

oh when we dream

oh sophia your child was born of hate

oh sophia i’ll hold you til it wakes

and turns to see your face

New American Dream

By John Cameron Mitchell

and Justin Craig

i dreamed in a meadow and when i woke 

i lay on a pillow of poison oak   

this is my dream 

come november the weakest of us all will fall 

and he will refuse to leave the oh so white house 

he will be dragged from his golden bunker 

and cast down before lincoln’s graven image 

who shakes his head in disbelief 

with a massive grinding grief 

then mitch mcconnell i presume 

will be forced to consume 

the weak one’s living flesh 

when he vomits as he must 

it’s only just that in his mouth be thrust  

the golden vomit of him  

thus the diseased body will pass through mitch’s gut 

and resolve itself into a stew  

a kind of vile fondue

this is my dream

that he will again be forced to eat

this is my dream

and again excrete 

this is my dream

this is my american dream

that night under the cover of a blood red moon 

pale white unvaccinated children in golden balaklavas 

will pluck his gleaming hairs and shattered nails 

from the hardening piles 

and pass them from tiny hand 

to tiny shit-stained hand 

across this great and venal nation 

new communities decimated by turd immunities 

will spring up like fungi 

from the moist and unholy relics 

like lowly psychedelics

for example

a single dyed pubic hair will inspire prayer

from a sleeper cell of senior-supremacist swingers

this is my dream

and his big toenail will blaze a trail

for an unintentional community of anti-vax gluten-free karens

this is my dream

this is my american dream

straight-acting high-yellow gay black uncut gun nuts 

tell you what

will rally around a splinter of his arthritic trigger finger

a cathedral for pro-life half-price vol-cel asswipes shall rise over his shrivelled foreskin 

then and only then shall the final vengeance begin

the mad ones shall tear each other limb from limb 

and descend in their final rapture 

to a heaven where they can safely destroy each other 

for eternity 

without disturbing those who remain 

the strong the loving and the sane

who will establish a dream

oh the new american dream

this is my american dream

oh my american dream

dream dream, my american dream

dream on dream my dream machine

dream dream dream on with me

a dream of an equitable caring society 

that speaks truth to powerlessness 

and welcomes and honors all those 

who honor their fellow humans 

and their terrified home the earth

this is my dream

dream dream american dream well come on

you got me dreamin baby this aint no meme

dream dream…

Picaflor

By John Cameron Mitchell

and Izae

i know how to say don’t leave me

i know how to say don’t go

you knew how say it believably

that you needed me

oh no

i know how to say don’t fuck with me

i know how to say i’ll go

but you knew how to say you’re stuck with me

good luck with me

although

you took an ambien an hour ago

now i say that i’m ready

i bit your neck and said tomorrow we’ll know

if i recall 

the source of such a small

wound 

i can’t wait to say i don’t miss you

i’m practiced at i told you so 

but this house has survived three wildfires

two hurricanes

a tornado

i tried to say it’s over

as aretha sang going down slow

but you said

hey john let’s have a baby

but please don’t blame me

if i roam

i was the last one to get a cell phone

now i’m texting and crying

i don’t believe in things til they’re shown 

not a big fan

of love that i can’t

see

a hummingbird uses geometry

draws blueprints between bluebells

impatiens mapped so patiently 

a sip here

a sip there

moving on

when things are good

i know how to say i’m sorry 

when years have softened the pain

we’ve both had our share of mortality

and vanity in vain

now we fly in not quite parallel paths

einstein might say we’ll converge

i was never that good at math

yet i pray

we’ll find a way 

to stay when things are good

Say their Names

By Leland and

John Cameron Mitchell

you thought you had some time

just enough to wait for it again

there was love that you could find

might not be too late for it but when

oh no, they took it too far

they took your life away

my friend

they’ll never know who you are

that you might have loved them

but then

they cut you

they told you not to speak

told you not to move

your hands

they thought that you were weak

but you carried more than any man

oh no i see where you are

i see where you ought to be

and when

they killed you they killed themselves

now let us live in your names

Layleen Polanco, Tony McDade, Monika Diamond, Serena Velázquez
Ramos, Dominique Fells, Yampi Méndez Arocho, Nina Pop, Layla Pelaez
Sánchez, Johanna Metzger, Alexa Negrón Luciano, Jayne Thompson, Dustin
Parker, Penélope Díaz Ramírez, Helle Jay O’Regan, Lexi, Selena Reyes-
Hernandez, Ríah Milton, Brayla Stone, Elizabeth Montaño, Mercy Mack,
Tatiana Hall, Bree Black, Shaki Peters, Luz Clarita Zúniga, Draya McCarty…

​

i see where you are

i see where you ought to be

my friend

when they killed you, they killed us all

now let us live in your names

in all your names

you thought you had some time

just enough to wait for it

again

there was love that you could find

it will not be too late for it

but when

No Debt

By John Cameron Mitchell, Ezra Furman, Jorgen Jorgensen-Briggs, Ben Joseph and Sam Durkes

over the sea

over the sea

i’ll get there

i wanna see  

there’s gonna be

no debt there

i need a disguise

i think it wise

to color my eyes 

kiss my lips away

burn my fingertips

cut off the lips

that kissed you

shatter my teeth

and the bones underneath

reset them in the shape 

of a good man

of a good man

give me a new name

give me a new name

i’ve always liked cosmo

they’ll never find me

they’ll never know me 

got a new passport

i want to go home

my woman has changed

her face rearranged

since i met her

i’m scared of my kid

and the things that i did

to get him to like me

​

i wasted my whole life

but i love my wife

cause she only wasted a short time

with me

nothing i could do 

made her love me how she used to

before she really knew me

over the sea

over the sea

over the sea

i’m gonna get there

i’m gonna see

there’s gonna be

no debt there

no debt there

here’s an idea

shut me up in a cave 

let it be my grave

with just a hole for a straw

til i forget what i saw

and all i did wrong

help me self-embalm

pour me in a mold

paint me gold

put me high on a shelf

watch over you 

in sickness and in health 

finally true to myself

i’ll do no harm i’ll do no harm

watch me through a rolled up dollar

ain't moving but i’m getting smaller

over the sea

over the sea

over the sea

there’ll be

no debt there

no debt there

never sing a song that you can’t sing to a dying man

oh no debt there

no debt debt debt debt debt

oooh etc.

See You Again

By John Cameron Mitchell

be on your guard

be on your guard

beyond the masking of your scars

you must feel so all alone

if i don't see you tomorrow

i  know that i will see you again

i know that i will see you one day again

and if you have no shelter of your own

no place to call home

you are like a child the world has disowned

you are unknown

be on your guard

be on your guard

beyond the brutal and the dark

your only path is through an empty park 

if i don't see you tomorrow

i know that i will see you again

you know i will see you again

for if on the day after this ends

i don’t call you friend

we will never learn how to mend

we are condemned

and if this plague has seeds that are sown

we must atone

i pray our rulers hear your moan or be overthrown

and be overthrown

be on your guard

be on your guard 

upon the unmasking of your scars

you may still feel so all alone

if i don't see you tomorrow

you know i will see you again

i know that i might be you some day

i pray that we will see each other again

Mx Otis Regrets

By John Cameron Mitchell

and Xiu Xiu

mommy mommy

i can see

i can see inside you 

i can

mommy i can hear

i can hear inside you

i can move

mommy mommy mommy

don’t wanna go out

mommy mommy mommy

wanna dance and shout        

mommy mommy mommy

don’t wanna go out

mommy mommy mommy

wanna dance inside you

not outside you

inside you

why do i have to be a man

to save the fucking world if i can

or maybe i will be a woman 

or something else in between

something better in between

something better in between

i don’t wanna go etc

i wanna stay right here

won’t ya let me

why do i have to be a man

to save the fucking world if i can

or maybe i will be a woman 

or something else in between

why do i have to be a man

to save the fucking world if i can

or maybe i will be a woman 

or something that’s in between

na na na..

here i’m ready

i’m ready to go

ok here we go

oh shit

did anybody see my earring?

American Sickness

By Alynda Segarra and John Cameron Mitchell

i have the american sickness

i’m never satisfied

i wanna buy the experience

i will be denied

always at the window

but never inside

i have the american sickness

i’m feeling endless pain

i have the weight of atrocity

it’s done in my name

i’m not to blame

it’s done in my name

how 

did it come to this

i know for some

shame no longer exists

but i’d 

like to reminisce

about a time 

when a sin was a kiss 

between god and money

i seek total forgiveness

i’ve outlived all my friends

i feel like the final witness

didn’t think i’d last

never thought i’d last in a land

with no future or past

​

and i don’t care about loyalty

i run and i run from my humanity

an earthquake 

an outbreak 

oh what will it take 

just to shake me

wake me out of this feverdream

and i long for purity

but nobody comes out clean

baby there’s nowhere left to hide

unless the mob is on your side

and i miss the days of a secret life 

someone’s always watching you

watching me

and i should take my own advice

but i no longer believe 

in what i was about to say

so i pray 

i have the american sickness 

i don’t know who i am

i don’t know what afflicts us

behold the man

he’ll do what he can

to finish what we began 

Nation of one

By John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask

i’ve had it with presidents
i’m done with the news
i’m finished with governments
you know they give me the blues
i’m weary of conspiracy theories
when the simplest answer is true
and when identity becomes escapism
that’s a subscription that self-renews
also i’ve had it with you

i’m not in charge of your happiness
it ain’t no fun
i don’t want to be trapped in this
wanna be a nation of one

oh oh oh oh I wanna be a nation of one

oh oh oh oh I wanna be a nation of one

i’m done with white noise
and proud boys
and god-given killing toys
and fascist divinity
i’m over cancel culture virtue vultures

profiteering victimhood and toxic femininity
can we incinerate the tik-tok houses
by the thousands
influencers might allow us
to watch them burn for free
if the content i provide ain't nothing new
well i’m content to blame you
and i think that we’re through
we are like siblings at best
it ain’t no fun
when we kiss it’s like incest
i wanna be a nation of one
oh oh oh oh I wanna be a nation of one

oh oh oh oh I wanna be a nation of one

i wanna secede from this union
fission is better than confusion
we’ve come to the natural conclusion
of late stage capitalism
new age socialism
polyamorous anarchism
i think i’m having an aneurism

a soft breeze used to strum our bodies
like a guitar
the sun lay its head on our knees
we were so near and yet so far
we survived every disease
i hope that god sees all the good that we have done
but every time it was you that i pleased
now i wanna be a nation of

one to wake when i want
two to eat at restaurants
three to fuck whom i will
four to have no one to kill
im talking five to cry at a movie alone
six to raise my very own clone
seven to give him everything when i’m done
oh yes i want to be a nation of one
oh oh oh oh I wanna be a nation of one...

Call me joe

By John Cameron Mitchell and Brett Every

you can call me someone whose number

you once used to know

but darlin' when you’re up there

think of me down below

you can call me someone

you knew from a summer years ago

oh but darlin' when you're callin,

you can call me joe

sometimes i hear your voice at night

sometime it seems to come from a great height

hope you’ve laid your burden down

lay it down

its a diamond in your crown

in your crown

you can call me someone whose number

you once used to know

but darlin' when you’re up there

think of me down below

you can call me someone

you knew from a summer years ago

oh but darlin’ when you're callin’

you can call me joe

​

sometimes i feel that death is dogging me

seems like everyone i know has fallen

fallen around me

sometime i wake and reach for you

but you’re not there there’s only air

wanna lay me back down

lay me down

you can call me someone whose number

you once used to know

oh but darlin’ you ain’t gone

you’re just further down the road

you can call me someone

you knew from a summer years ago

and darlin', when you're callin,

you can call me joe

you can call me joe

joe

i hear you calling down below

you know all is well here

everybody you know  says hello

me and brian mom and dad

and everybody else

knows  you’ll come through

we’re waiting on you

you can call me someone whose number

you once used to know

oh but darlin' you’re not gone

you’re just further down the road

you can call me someone who never

wanted you to go

oh but darlin' when you’re callin’

you can call me joe

i will call you joe

LEAVE THE KID ALONE

By Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon and John Cameron Mitchell

Once eden is gone

When summer has ended

And all of the children have grown

One slip of the tongue

Could turn to catastrophe

One we have already known

Leave the kid alone

Leave the kid alone

Leave the kid alone

Leave the kid alone

Is it the love you want

Pray tell little dreamer

Pray over these seeds we have sown

Or will you run away

Escape this tragedy

Now tell us where will you go

Do you recall a kind of place

Before we ever knew the taste

Of good and evil

when they were equal

where we who sing and never age

and crawl upon an empty page

in rage primeval

in this cathedral

a pair of floating

cherubs quoting

children choking

gates are closing soon

​

And so the flaming swords

lock the gates of the garden

In holy eviction sealed

So now we

Leave the kid alone

Leave the kid alone

Leave the kid alone

Leave the kid alone

YOU CAN GO NOW

By John Cameron Mitchell and Catherine Russell

i’m sorry

but your body’s

about to give out

but oddly

i’m a hard copy

of what you’re about

you can go now

cuz i vow

to write down all your jokes

and finish all your smokes

i’ll sow what’s left of your oats

and heat them up for the folks

that never knew ya

i’m sorry  

but my body

is holding up fine

and you’re not me

you’ll never top me

even as i decline

quit your performing

and your nonconforming

your therapist’s allegations i find deeply boring

i don’t care to look at that sour face

over a boiled egg every morning

you can’t remember a thing i just said

all you can say is you wish you were dead

i’m lucky i can recall anything at all

but i remember you never wrote

you never called

you told im going to hell for my sins

i wept and you said bring on the violins

no what i said was you can go to hell

i always gave you options

god i feel unwell

a gin toddy

in our bodies

would even the score

i’m sorry

my memory’s spotty

have we met before

i can’t quite place you

but with that face

you will do fine in this world

you’re stronger

you have lived longer

than i ever wanted to

i know you

want me to go soon

my heart just broke in two

oh but when it breaks you  

gotta to make sure

it breaks open

and everything that is unspoken

all the things that i’ve shown no one

the hurt and hope has awoken

to tell you that you were chosen

to carry on my son

what i set

into motion

CASIOPEA

By Silvio Rodríguez
Vocals by John Cameron Mitchell

como una gota fui de la marea
la playa me hizo grano de la arena.
fui punto en multitud por donde fui
nadie me detectó y así aprendí
cuando creí colmada la tarea
volví mi corazón a casiopea

cumplí celosamente nuestro plan
por un millón de años esperar
hoy llevo el doble dando coordenadas
pero nadie contesta mi llamada
qué puede haber pasado a mi señal
será que me he quedado sin hogar
hoy sobrevivo apenas a mi suerte
lejano de mi estrella, de mi gente
el trance me ha mostrado otra lección
el mundo propio siempre es el mejor
me voy debilitando lentamente
quizás ya no sea yo cuando me encuentren

English translation by JCM:

i am a drop in the tide

the beach made of me a grain of sand.
i travel in crowds

no one notices me

and that's how I learned
when I thought my mission complete

i turned my heart to cassiopeia

i carefully fulfilled our plan

to wait for a million years
today I transmit the double coordinates

yet no one answers my call
what happened to my signal
have I lost my home
I have survived my fate

far from the star of my people
the trance has shown me a new lesson
one’s own world is always the best

i slowly weaken

when they find me

will I still be me

Geniuses

By John Cameron Mitchell and Billy Hough
Vocals by Amber Martin

There’s a boy below

he lives three floors down

He like to sew

He’s knitting a scarf that’s brown

when he gives it to his mom he hopes she’ll cry

and he’s making her a birthday pie

who ever heard of a birthday pie

and why why why

won’t the other boys leave him alone

though he tries tries tries

to invite them to his home

does your daddy know you’re a fag

well he’s dead so yeah

I don’t remember his face

but I’ve seen him when I sleep

he lays down next to me

tells me that love is never weak

then mom wakes me

to break me free

from his many arms

mommy he would never harm me

daddy take me back

silence me before I scream

for we’re all geniuses when we dream

he loved santa best

left him dates and a bottle of wine

mom came down undressed

slapped him and drank it down

when he cried she laughed

she said there’s no santa silly.

he said nothing for the rest of day

he even threw all his presents away

​

and wondered why why why

does she never tell him the truth

he tests her lies lies lies

by pulling out his own tooth

tucking it under his pillow

he went out to play that day

and he didn’t come back til dark

his mom said where you been

he said with my best friend quinn

what you never mentioned a quinn

finally you have a friend

i’d sure like to meet him

he told her

silly silly there is no quinn

and now you stare at me

as if I broke free

from your many arms

I’m gonna sleep all day

oh daddy won’t you take me back

kiss me before I scream

for we’re all geniuses when we dream
 

i heard him sing

from the window below

it was early spring

he whistled to an old black crow

as if it understood

what it meant to be alone

then he heard the notes

i whistled back at him

stuck his head out

he saw me grin

he sang high high high

I sang harmonies from above

our notes entwined

sounded like a kind of love

we slip back into our beds

as our song comes to an end

but there’s no need to dream

we both found a friend