Wes Collins

Jenny and James
Music ©2022 Wes Collins, Pete Damore and Crystal Hariu-Damore (Whoompleytunes and Bean Sown Music)
Lyrics ©2022 Wes Collins (Whoompleytunes)

Oh Jenny
With your wicked laugh and a crooked grin
Every morning you’d come in
Singing a song to your rolling pin
Dusting down the biscuit dough
Seven hours on your shift to go
You wouldn’t pick up on Jimmie
Or take any notice when he

Decided to change his name
From Jimmie back down to James
Took it down by one letter
And hoped you might like it better

But mostly James was scared
Keeping out of your pinned up hair
Like a rug or a folding chair
He was always just kind of there
But he knew how to harmonize
When you shut the place down at night
He lived for your sideways chuckle
Whenever he got it right 

But you never picked up a phone
So he wrote you a two-word poem
For you to read when you were alone
You tore it open when you got home

And it said “Oh Jenny”

You could read what he didn’t say
Couldn’t make yourself feel that way
Let him down the best you could
And he made a face like he understood

But he quit with the harmony then
Started going by Jimmie again
Taped his heart up along the tear
And you two had to leave it there

But now once in a couple years
In the back of your memory’s ear
Reedy voice you can almost hear
Singing Oh Jenny


Under My Fingers
©2022 Wes Collins (Whoompleytunes)

They say thought leads to words and then words lead to action
But when they buzz around my tongue and I can’t seem to catch them
I can’t think in black and white when I’ve been swimming around in the grey
And so I don’t ever know what I mean until I say it

It's under my fingers
Plain as the alphabet
Right under my fingers
Just haven't typed it yet

But the last time I saw you you took me to tatters
And you swore you were soft underneath like it matters
Then you showed me your scars but wouldn't tell me where you got 'em
As we laced up our shoes for one last race to the bottom

It's under my fingers
As close as it’s gonna get
Right under my fingers
Just haven't found it yet

When did we decide
Everything had to scan and rhyme
Nobody wanted to hurt anybody
That's just how it came out that time
I can see you trying
Not to bring down what we deserve
And if the makers are watching us
I hope they’re grading on a curve

But when we got to the end, what was there? 
I’ve forgotten
And maybe I wasn’t listening to you, yeah, that happens a lot
And I could dry up any second now that I’m looking down at the pen
But then it’s not giving up if we both say
I surrender


Cocoon
©2022 Wes Collins (Whoompleytunes)

Takeout and silverware
All over the floor
And I can’t get around here in my bare feet anymore
I had some ideas
Don’t know where they are
Probably rolling around the floorboard of my car

Some people never learn how to read a room

But I kept hoping
This was a cocoon
And I was gonna turn into something better pretty soon
That ain’t what happened
I guess you know
You ain’t gonna crack the wall if there’s no place you want to go

Some people never learn how to read a room
It’s alright in the morning
Gets dark in the afternoon

I hang on through your voicemail
I hang up at the tone
I don’t want to be a stammering voice leaking out of your phone
But if I don’t tell you now
I probably never will
I’ll try to get it down longhand if I can get the paper to hold still

But hear me out
The way I figure it
To get what you really want the trick is you to for the opposite
And you get what they hand you anyway
Whatever you choose
But you can’t disappoint yourself too bad if you aim for the blues

Some people
Some people
Some people never know when they’re

Making it awkward
From the day that we met
I owe you so many apologies you’re not gonna get
But I can just about scrape together
A sorry goodbye to you
I’ll put it under your wiper blade
I guess it’ll have to do


Last Saturday
©2022 Wes Collins (Whoompleytunes)

Last Saturday
I got out of the house again
It started out so promising
Then somebody said your name
Or maybe it was me
I don’t know, it might have been
I always feel you on my skin
A little stutter in the brain

So the seasons finally changed
You didn’t stop the world from spinning round
There’s cherry petals on the ground
I can see them through the blinds
I wind the clock again
But I don’t care what time it is
I’m just building up the calluses
That help me keep inside the lines

A couple times a year
The sirens at the edge of town
They wake up and they lay it down
Like a baby on a plane
I notice it sometimes
Doesn’t bug me like I thought it would
And if you’re asking well I’m doing good
I left the house last Saturday


Look Out 
©2022 Wes Collins (Whoompleytunes)

Look out for the people who love you
Cos I never knew love to be loud
I been squinting into faces for seventy years
And I could never pick it out of a crowd
When your eyes acclimate to the carnival noise
You can make out the pretty from the true
Then look out for the people who love you 
They’re looking for you too

And look out for the people who love you
When they gesture for you to come through
Into a house where the floor might be a little bit sticky
But you still need to take off your shoes
There might be a diary left open to a sensitive page
You can read but don’t ever let on
You look out for the people who love you
And you’ll never be gone

And they give it up for nothing 
then you get to earn it
Use their hearts like a muscle 
and just watch how they turn on you

Then brother look out for the people who love you
Cos you gave them the keys to your life
You got a scar on your spirit?
Somebody who loved you was probably holding the knife
It’s right there in the name of the contract
Engineered to be misunderstood
“Look out for the people who love you”
They can mess you up good
Yeah look out for the people who love you 
I never could


Medusa
©2022 Wes Collins (Whoompleytunes)

Under the bar light you might take her for a statue
A Botticelli with a splinter in the spine
And if you’re lucky you won’t catch her looking at you
Keeps to her booth and makes a meal on whatever wine is around

Most days she wraps up in the gray robes of a cigarette
Like any widow lying wide-eyed in the dark
A piece of blackened memory catching on the curtains
Up to the attic where the banker boxes are

She got to watch herself
She got to watch herself
And it’s only complicated if she wants you
She just wants a little help
How can she watch herself?
You know why she keeps away from mirrors, don’t you?

Coaxes her hair into her hat and checks her make-up
Comes to the window when she’s sure that she can smile
And when the hourglass starts yellowing the paper
She’s got to get herself outside a little while

So if you come across a woman who won’t meet your eye
Keep your distance, take the hint and let her be
She keeps those Ray-Bans on her face for your protection
They only hide what you were never meant to see

She’s got to watch herself
She’s got to watch herself
She’s got the weapons but she doesn’t want to use them
It ain’t like she isn’t strong
But she’s fought it way too long
Tonight we’re gonna have to reckon with Medusa


Grease Fire
©2022 Wes Collins (Whoompleytunes)

I might have shimmied up a tree or scaled a mountain
But there I sat
Then I let fifteen years go by but who was counting
Don’t answer that

And I don’t think I’ll ever know how come you drew me out of 
The middle of the stack
That’s why I trust you when you’re mad but when you’re nice to me
I can keep a little back

Well I’ve been trying not to think about the question 
So I reckon I’m getting close
Do I really have to stare into a mirror to see
What’s underneath my nose

Get it down in ink and underline the words
Or it can tear you upside out like carrion birds

An emergency will show you your position
And a grease fire doesn’t ask for your permission, it just burns
You get to find out what you’re made of when you’re in it
But can’t I just stay dumb for another minute

I sent a message yesterday, I hope you open it
And I hope you get it
I thought it ran a little long but then I might have lost a little
In the edit
It still says I’m sorry though
So there’s that


The Trees
©2022 Wes Collins (Whoompleytunes)

Well it has to get stuffy up in that tower all day
Can you call it a view when you don’t get to look away?
All day and night up there scanning the park
For a rumor of smoke or a spark
And you have to love something about it; you sure don’t get paid

When I’m working the trails I think about you up there
Thirty-six stories up, Jesus God that’s a lot of stairs
And there isn’t any signal out here
And the mail runs like nine times a year
If it wasn’t so dry I’d surprise you and send up a flare

Cos I’m looking at the trees
And you can see the forest
Down here in the weeds
It’s hard to see you rooting for us
When I lay my blanket down
I want to take the long view
But I’m sleeping on the ground

You spend half of the wet season looking down at the rain
Me I can pick any flower and tell you the Latin name 
That sounds to me like a pretty good start
But it’s also what keeps us apart
You say it is what it is and I say it’s a shame

Cos I’m looking at the trees
Twenty bucks says you are too
If there’s anything you need
I’ll try to make it up to you 
Or I can wait till you come down
Keep me in the long view
I’ll see you around


Sugar Skull
©2022 Wes Collins (Whoompleytunes)

Oh Sugar Skull
Please come home I promise to behave
I’m always full
But that don’t mean I never get a craving
It was one little nibble but you got my attention
Now I’m groping around in the kitchen
With one eye open and the other eye twitching

Ah Sugar Skull
Why can’t it be like it was the day we met?
You want the whole thing
And I’m getting to think that’s what you’re gonna get
You keep changing up the rules every time I learn the game
Pushing all my best friends out of the frame
And now they call me by a different namE

And everybody tells me you’re not here
So how can you be breathing in my ear?

I’m not gullible
But I believe you’re about to get me to believe
Oh Sugar Skull
Now what’s it gonna take to get you to leave?
You been posing in my head like a low-rent madonna
I ought to cut you dead cause I don’t think I
Wanna be around if you’re cutting me down
To a sugar skull

Jabberwockies
©2022 Wes Collins (Whoompleytunes)

Relax your eyes
You’ll probably see it
It’s always there
A couple angels
A bunch of monsters 
Everywhere you look
You just have to wait

Keep an eye 
On where the 
Jabberwockies go
Watch them slither
Down the hidey holes
They know
You won’t have to wait for long

Putting in a call to generations gone
If they even want to talk to us anymore
We haven’t raised them for so long

So brush the panic
Off your face and
Start the van
Make out like
You never saw it
But you can now
Grab whatever 
You can burn
To keep you warm
Put a feather
In the air when
There’s a storm coming
If you’re not careful
It’ll all get to feel 
Like normal again
You won’t have to wait for long