"You said you missed your cat & cigarettes" (lyrics) - Plus t-shirts and a performance on April 30th
Playing with word, playing with songs, playing the coffeehouse
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Only fools can say, live with no regrets
The night you left you said you missed your cat & cigarettes
- from my song, Ode © 2020 - Matthew Moran
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This is a post about song lyrics. We’re going to have an update on Christopher’s progress and some other writing soon. Brief update: He’s doing well - 121 days clean. He has a lot of work in front of him.
Thank you everyone for the notes I’ve received about the music, the writing, and those who ask about Christopher. I am more appreciative than I can adequately express.
About that cat & cigarettes line
At the start of the pandemic, Deb had to have Sabrina, her cat of 16+ years, put down. Sabrina had serious kidney issues and it was time.
As is the case with such decisions, Deb was torn and, to this day, wonders if she did all she could for Sabrina. I believe she did but I understand the consternation. It is one of the few times I’ve seen tears in Deb’s eyes. I’m the weepy one in the relationship. I’m probably a once-a-week weeper. Good tears, sad tears, I got ‘em all.
Deb also used to smoke cigarettes. I know, everyone views her as sweet. And she is sweet, to be sure… but she ain’t that sweet… thank God!!! She’s one of those smoking girls your mother warned you about. ;-) “Thanks mom! I found one!”
WE are designing some lyric-based t-shirts. This is one design WE are modifying it a bit. But, I like it. And by “WE” I mean, Deb. She does the website, the shirts, the logos, and the photos. I do the impatience and [
lagging←edit] nagging discontent. We have our roles.
She had quit long before we started hanging out, minus a brief foray into clove cigarettes that she justified by claiming they weren’t real cigarettes.
But Deb often carried an e-cigarette - though it was never charged. While driving she would often reach for the e-cigarette and take a long smokeless drag. Again, it was not charged.
She was using the physical act as a way to recall smoking. In fact, she still does this sometimes. When things get stressful, she’ll take a drag off an imaginary cigarette. I think it is both cute and hilarious!
A month or so after we said goodbye to Sabrina we were at my house in Los Angeles. I can’t recall what instigated the stress - possibly just the combination of her pandemic concerns, losing her cat, and losing her cousin the same week. Or maybe I was in hyped-up impatience mode about… something. That’s more likely I suppose.
Deb turned to me and said, “I miss my cat and cigarettes.”
I loved the phrase and told her, “That line is going to make it into a song.”
I made a note of it in Google Keep (a simple note taking app connected to your Gmail account).
A month or two later I was writing a somewhat darkly themed song of reflection. It is called Ode. I’ve never played the song out but I think I’ll include it in my April 30th show at Barclay’s Coffee in Northridge. I reached a line in my lyrics where Deb’s poetic outcry seemed like the right line. And voila!
I’ve included the lyrics below.
Before you get to the lyrics, here is another t-shirt design we are playing with. It is from my song, Making Peace with the War.
I’d love to know what you think of our two design ideas.
Ode Lyrics
© 2020 - Matthew Moran
Verse 1
Got nothing but time
It's the edge of the night
Shadows make their dying play
Where loss and hope collide
And I've been fading it's true
A little more each day
It's not all these years I'm wearing
But those that slip away
Verse 2
I kept hoping you'd call
Maybe that was naïve
I skipped town last November
And my number, it's been changed
Verse 3
Only fools can say
Live with no regrets
The night you left you said
You missed your cat and your cigarettes
It's not my place to judge
Still I pronounce you condemned
Then beg forgiveness of a god
I've forgotten and forsaken in the end
Saturday, April 30th - 7-9pm
Barclay’s Coffee in Northridge,CA.
Facebook Event Page
Sincerely and with love,
Matthew Moran
April 21, 2022
The design re peace and war is VERY promising. I love paradoxes and the juxtaposition of antithetical qualities. Actually, Keats said that this was the very HEART AND KERNAL OF ART. He said that art was fueled by "negative capability" or the ability to take two opposing things and make them seem congruent or allied or in sync EVEN THOUGH they stood in opposition. On a more concrete level, your design generates the following thoughts: A) To attain peace, you have to fight like a tough son of a bitch and warrior and, conversely, B) Sometimes, the people who purport to love peace and to fight for peace are lying, war-like scum bags.