Eric Folkerth - unfinishedbusinesslyrics

Unifinished Business- Lyrics

The Grass Is Only Greener

He read “The Art of War,”
 He read “The Joy of Sex,” 
But “The Politics of Rich and Poor”
Was just a little too complex.

He’s working through the ranks
In the First Conglomerate Bank
He’s wrapping up retirement in
Yen and dollars, pounds and francs.

Just looking for the answers
trying to read the signs.
Searching for one single taste
Of elusive peace of mind
And the truth that never hits him
Until he’s jumped the fence and gone
Is that the grass is only greener
When he’s not tending his own lawn.

She works out at the y
Eats yogurt on the sly
She took the Tik Tok quiz on how
To find and keep the perfect guy

She hears blondes have more fun
So she’s becoming one.
She wonders if she ought to have
A little tummy tucking done

Go ahead and lean your head over the fence
See the other side
With no fear and no pretense.
The lushness of the grasses there
May not be from the place
But my only be reflections
Of the green in your own face.

I got a new girlfriend
Cause the old was a bore
A big old house,
With fake French doors
A brand new job
At twice the money before
Got a Tesla Truck with 4x4

Got Ginkoba to raise
My IQ Score
Daily affirmations
Bn the fridgerator door
Brene Brown books
Laying on the floor
Near the autographed
Codependent No More

I’m just looking for the answers
trying to read the signs.
Searching for one single taste
Of elusive peace of mind
And the truth that never hits him
Until he’s jumped the fence and gone
Is that the grass is only greener When I’m not tending my own lawn.

Those Two

You fell in love
with a guy in jeans and boots
who never wore a suit
and played guitar all night long

I fell in love
with a girl of revolution
pushing back the institution
in places it was wrong

Where'd they go,
those two?
I believe they're still inside
me and you.

You fell in love
with a guy, chronically late
who forgot important dates
but who could always make you smile.

I fell in love
with the girl who had a plan
for every second in her hand
and survived every trial.

Where'd they go,
those two?
I believe they're still inside
me and you.

Things we found attracting
Grow frustrating and distracting
Each year, these scenes we're acting
Keep repeating, time again.

And so, the greater mystery
Is how, with all this history
We can yet persist to be
Lovers and friends.

I'm still in love
with that quiet girl who knows me
doesn't say, but simply shows me
all the safety of a home.

Your'e still in love
with that guy who sees the world
as a place to show that girl
with fields still yet to roam.

Where'd they go,
those two?
I believe they're still inside
me and you.

Every day, they're still inside
me and you.

Ember Afterglow

Faces flicker in the fire light
Round the sacred circle tonight
Where we sing our songs and feel all right
Around an ember afterglow

Night grows deep and firelight dies
Notes are birth and voices rise
And we hear what can’t be seen with eyes.
Around an ember afterglow

Ember afterglow
Ember afterglow
This sacred space we know
Around an ember afterglow

Circled by friends new and old
We sing our truth out loud and bold
To brace each other from the cold
Beyond this ember afterglow.

And on these nights it often seems
We’re living out what’s in our genes
To tell a story or sing a scene.
Around some ember after glow

Ember afterglow
Ember afterglow
This sacred space we know
Around an ember afterglow

And in the cold light of the morning
When the voices all are still
And the memories fade and flicker
And the real world since it’s chill
We can brush aside those ashes
Even miles on down the road
And still find their burning in us
That ember afterglow

Ember afterglow
Ember afterglow
This sacred space we know
Around an ember afterglow

You Can Go Home Again

We came back through that door
The one that we went out of several years before
Saw these old worn halls.
And strangely still familiar wooden walls.

Does this thing go in that drawer?
Is that where it went before?
Some new stuff needs some new room
But I’m betting that we’ll find soon

No matter what they say
It sometimes works
that happily ever after comes
at least for a day

It’s hard to comprehend
But every now and then
no matter where you’ve been
you can go home again

But… back in the same place it’s not the same.

Let’s take our wedding crystal out
Throw it off some tall hill lookout scene
And watch it smashed into a billion stars
On which we’ll still wish brand new dreams

Cause we can’t walk through the same river twice
But if we said this a bit more precisely
We’d be left with the strange hunch
That we could never cross one river once

No matter what they say
It sometimes works
that happily ever after comes
at least for a day

It’s hard to comprehend
But every now and then
no matter where you’ve been
you can go home again

But… back in the same place it’s not the same.

Free My Hands

On the trail toward my destiny,
It's been a long, hard road
But it's there, just beyond the next tall ridge.
That's when you're standing right in front of me
Like there's no where to go
In the middle of the last suspension bridge

Free my hands. Free my hands
Well I'm just telling you so you can understand
'Cause you can pull up some from your end
And we can walk this road as friends
But if you'll never try, then I'll have to free my hands.

And it did not pay attention,
When you handed me that rope
With end tied round your waist,
Just out of sight
But then I felt the funny tension
And first thought it was a joke
When you jumped the bridge and shouted
"Hold on tight."

And I cannot pull you up from here,
The gravity's too great
There's no place I can tie this off
Or counter with my weight
And I say I'm getting tired,
And that help might come too late
When you scream that I'm responsible
For your final fate.

But there's still one other move
And it's still your's to choose
Where neither of us lose...

And so, I give your choices back to you.
No, I'm not cold or cruel.
You could wrap up the rope around you
From your side.
And I will wait to see what you will do
And and you would not be a fool
If you made the choice to reach your hands
And try.

 A Love Song That’s True

“You mean the world to me…”
But when you’re out of town
This big blue green ball
Keeps on spinning right around.

“You are a part of me…”
But that line is just pretend
‘Cause I’ve still got all my fingers
And I’ve still got all my limbs.

“I’d be lost without you…”
But the truth is, when I pack
That I always take a compass
And I usually take a map.

And so what I’m really searching for
Is a love song that’s true.
So I guess that I’ll just say that I love you.

“You’re the wind in my wings…”
But that’s really quite absurd
‘Cause you’re really not the wind
And I’m really not a bird.

“You are my only one…”
And yet, when I count my friends
Well they number in the hundreds
Or at least into the tens.

“I’m totally crazy about you…”
But this simple truth remains
Every moment we’re together
I’m really still quite sane.

And so what I’m really searching for
Is a love song that’s true.
So I guess that I’ll just say that I love you.

I guess that I’ll just say
Everything else sounds cliche
Guess that I’ll just say that I love you.

I Wish You Could Cry

What if I could offer you
a net that you could not fall through
that always holds?

Or what if all I offered you
were arms so you could fall into
a tender fold?

I wish you could cry
I wish you could cry
I can read your face’s tell
I know it all too well

I see the signs
So many signs.
And I wish you’d let me hold you
And I wish you could cry

You say you’re deepest fear
is the great river of your tears
will somehow never end.

But trusting in that flow
is now we finally let it go
and how our hearts can mend.

I wish you could cry
I wish you could cry
I can read your face’s tell
I know it all too well

I see the signs
So many signs.
And I wish you’d let me hold you
And I wish you could cry

Coolest Guy In the Room

Jimmy’s got 3,000
New mp3s
That’s he’s burned into several
Party CD
That he plays for his friends,
Playing pool, and for me.
That night at the family reunion.
That night that I was…
The coolest guy in the room.

Jimmy and friends have all
Just turned eighteen
And they’re hip and they’re trendy
They’re hungry and lean
But in one of the strangest things
I’ve ever seen.
This music they all love is oldies.
That night that I was…
The coolest guy in the room.

‘Cause they’re playing me
Fleetwood Man, Manfred Mann
Bob Seeger, some Eagles,
and old Steely Dan.
The Boston and Kansas
And Steve Miller Band
And my hand hides and ironic smile
‘Cause I’ve got all this stuff
Home on vinyl.
That night that I was…
The coolest guy in the room.

So they ask me questions
About these old songs
And they break out guitars
When everyone’s gone
And I’m playing tunes
I haven’t played in so long
Like “Night Moves
And “Stairway to Heaven.”
And I suddenly realize that, to them
That I have become…
The coolest guy in the room.

What goes around…Comes around

But as Jimmy listens
He’s suddenly sad
He says, “These songs remind me
Of what I once had.
Weekend visitations
I spent with my Dad.
They help me to know who
He was then.
They help me to picture him now.”

So, if you’re in love with
Someone like myself
Who keeps loads of old vinyl
Out on the bookshelf
And who tells you they’re treasures
of unmeasured wealth,
Well, just patiently humor your lover
‘Cause one day you just might
Discover
That your love has become…
The coolest one in the room.

What goes around…Finally comes around

Find A Home

Mural, mural on the wall
Who said life was fair for all
Like the ones who sleep
Beneath your feet?

By light of day, the students play
Spend their daddy’s take home pay
But home for them
Has never meant the street

But of all we have
And all we will
And all we throw away
We still see children’s hungry eyes
We still hear lonely old me cry

We still can’t find the lost and broken ones
A home

Sleepless nights
And neon lights
Walking to the divine
The wrong from the right
And talking with the worms along the way.

“Who is that?” you challenged me
“A homeless bum,” I thought carelessly
“It’s me,” you screamed.
And it was.
And it’s still today.

But of all I have
And all I will
And all I throw away
I still see children’s hungry eyes
I still hear politicians lies
I still sit still more than I work
To find them
Homes.

Don’t sit still…
Work to find them homes…

Peewee, do you remember me?
My blank stare
Standing silently
Fixing in my eyes, your image there.
Brick and paint, persevere you still
Just beneath a window sill
Sleeping like you’ve never had a care.

And are you still now
just as proud
But be part of the mural’s crowd
Do the young still laugh and taunt
And look away as on they pass?

And are you dead, or still alive
No thanks to me, did you survive
And did you ever
find a place to call
Your home?

Stepping On Your Feelings

I’m sorry that I stepped on your feelings
But what were they doing
strewn out across the floor, anyway?
And in asking you this question
Have I just exacted one more debt
I’ll never pay
It sometimes feels that way.

I pray that my words don’t send you reeling
But this constant worrying
Has turned into a paralyzing fear
That I might say some wrong word
Or say the accidental thing
That you don’t want to hear

And so I’ll have to make it clear
That I’m making a new choice now.

I’m gonna learn to Tango
Gonna learn that Cotten Eyed Joe
Might even pirouette
Out on the end of my big toe
And all this doesn’t mean
That I’ll go waltzing out the door
It just means I just can’t worry
About stepping on your feelings any more.

And they say that life is one big dance
And that you’ve got to take the change
Of loving hard and wild romance
To find what we seek.

And if we could break through this wall
Our separate fears, away might fall
And through this elegant dance hall
We’d move, cheek to cheek.

We could learn that tango
We could learn that Cotten Eyed Joe
Might even pirouette
Out on the end of our big toe
And all this doesn’t mean
That we’d go waltzing out the door
It just means that we won’t worry
About stepping on our feelings any more.

Gonna learn to Cha Cha
Gonna learn that Cotten Eyed Joe
Might even Macarena
Out on the end of my big toe
And all this doesn’t mean
That I’ll go waltzing out the door
It just means I just can’t worry
About stepping on your feelings any more.

No Greater Wound

After landing, Jim was standing
Like he hadn't changed a bit
But with a face that counted every single year.

We embraced, then went to chase
the ghosts of who we used to be
And to chase 'em down with pretzels and a beer.

He said, "I've got these heartbroke memories,
scars from every turn.
Lean in close, and let me tell, the hardest
lesson I have learned..."

There is no deeper hole
Than that one you dig yourself.
There is no darker night
Than when you close your eyes.
There are no stronger bars
Than lock down your homemade cell.
And there's no greater wound
Than when your own heart lies.

"I've been hid from my own kids, I've hid from the face of love,"
Jim said, as he hid is water covered eyes.

Though it pained him, he still claimed them,
Every stumble, every fall
And every time he'd hardly even tried.

He said, "I'd like some one to blame."
And the he bought another round,
"And I could give you up some names.
But in the end, what I have found"

Then the night came to an end
And I lost track of Jim again
But I never lost the lesson of my friend.

Nothing Else Matters

The voice on the line
Said that you should be just fine
But that I should probably still
come right away.

And in the roadway up ahead
At least a dozen flashing reds
Marked a scene where gasps
were all I prayed.

Cause when you see the twisted metal
And the glass that’s all been shattered
Then, you realize in an instant
That there’s nothing else that matters.

And in emergency
They didn’t want to let me see
But I forced my way
and got back to your room.

You were laying in that bed
A big wrap around your head.
They said recovery would come,
but not come soon.

Still, when you see the face
that feels like home
Although it’s been blood spattered.
And you can know you won’t be left alone
Then there’s nothing else that matters
What precious gifts, these lives we lead.
What grace, the chance to
touch and taste and hear and see.

And how much more time will there be
Time to snatch back from eternity?

And we fight more than we should
Between the trying to be good
And we lance old wounds
with knives
we’ve made by hand.

And we worry every day
How we’ll live and how we’ll pay.
And how we’ll know our choices are the plan.

And so, long after rains wash blood away
And that glass is wind-blown scattered
Let’s remember, each new day.

How nothing but love matters.

It’s Yours

Your always waiting for the other shoe to drop
You always think your bubble’s gonna pop
And that they’ll pull you out of line
And tell you, “Up to now’s been fine
But you’ve got more than your share,
So you must stop…

And you don’t deserve it
You did not earn it
You can’t return it
But it’s yours.

It just comes to you
There’s no-thing you do
And it’s always true
That’s it’s yours.

Still you analyze each new gift
To seek its source
Certain it’s always a Trojan Horse
That the happiness won’t last
That the failure of the past
Will reappear, somewhere along the course.

But it’s not a package opened by mistake
It’s not a facade, hiding a fake
It’s just how your cards unfold
Just the way your story’s told
It’s just your life, your skill and grace

And you don’t deserve it
You did not earn it
You can’t return it
But it’s yours.

It just comes to you
There’s no-thing you do
And it’s always true
That’s it’s yours.

Bad times keep us guessing
Other days are filled with blessing
And the mix we live’s a much distressing blend

So though it sounds like a platitude
Perhaps the only attitude
To cling to is gratitude, in the end

You don’t deserve it
You did not earn it
You can’t return it
But it’s yours.

It just comes to you
There’s no-thing you do
And it’s always true
That’s it’s yours.

Return

We’re leaving again
How can this be?
So close to the dream
So close to you and me

But through these tears
I can still see
One hard won lesson I’ve learned

That we shall return.
We shall return.

Life often folds
Back on itself
Back to dusty places
We’ve left on the shelf
Where we’re surprised to find
That inspire of ourselves
None of our old bridges have burned.
So we shall return.
We shall return.

The winds of the soul
Continually blow
And you never know
Where they come or they go
So, we trust in the breeze
And we go with the flow
And believe new winds
one day will churn

And help us shall return.
Help us return.

You say you woke up on day
Surprised to find
You’ve been stuck in some hole
That feels too high to climb

Just keep looking up
One hand hold at a time
And you’ll reach solid ground
That’s hard earned

And you shall return.
You shall return.