Soak Up the Summer

Shake Hands With The Devil. Know Your Enemy Well.

Look closely enough, you’ll find we all tell the same stories over and over.
Somewhere between the hum of a radio tower and the chirp of the crickets on a sweltering summer night, you’ll also find this song.
More verses added to the same old song mankind has been singing since the beginning.
Yes, I do have a tune in mind for this, but it won’t be anything unearthed here.

Soak Up the Summer
June, 2006
by David C. Roberson

Dim bulb cloud sun,
hidin’ so I barely see.
Foggy-filtered, shinin’,
castin’ shadows on the kudzu leaves.
Asphalt grinnin’,
makin' friendly with its mighty cracks.
I'm hangin' high
above creation,
wondering where my only true love's at.

Soak up the summer,
soak up the soul,
sweat out the sadness
that swallows you whole.

Southern Princess,
playin' pretty with my sullied heart.
She meant to me creation,
but she played too many different parts.
Gale winds whippin',
rocked the waves within my quiet sea.
Shake it, Sugar Baby,
make damn sure you're gonna capsize me.

She had a little cottage,
and she ran it as a one-room inn.
I stayed a while
and paid the price
with tears and pain and unplanned sin.
She kicked me out then,
once the bed was neatly made,
and rented my room promptly
to a waiter with an angel's name.

So I soak up the summer,
soak up the soul.
Sweat out the darkness
that swallows me whole.

I soak up the sunshine,
soak up the rays.
Forget that woman
and her worrisome ways.

Teeter, tower,
flash your lights at all the sinkin' planes.
Then fall down
and clear the air of frequencies and waves.
Silence to the pseudo-pop,
the ballads short and long,
hip-hop, rock,
and all the wrongs that artists
have turned into songs.

But I soak up the summer,
embrace the soul.
Imbibe vibrations,
the joy silence stole.

The Music’s in your heart,
Sing right along.
Another fool addin’ verses
to the same old song.

Ticking, tocking,
time flies by at such a hurried pace.
I'm stuck inside my life,
a bug inside an amber cage.
I look back briefly
at the days I only barely knew,
and look ahead in hopes
Of something good
Comin’ into view.

Til then I’ll soak up the summer,
into my soul,
sweat out the demons
that have me in a hold.

Soak up the daytime,
Embrace the new,
discard the old times
that ended too soon.

Jingle, jangle,
listen closely to the sound so strange.
The fitful cries
of spirits broken by the daily strain.
It's like a pocket
full of dirty coins from different states.
Face the front and pace yourself
for turbulence and loose change.

And soak up the summer,
the hot quiet nights,
sweat out the shadows
that give you such a fright.

Soak up disaster,
Eat of the ill,
shake hands with the Devil,
know your enemy well.

Bite the apple,
gain the knowledge of the ner' do well.
sweetness lingers
while you burn inside your earthly hell.
Snatched from Heaven,
ripped from love and left here all alone,
ring tone wailin',
pick it up your Father's on the phone.

Sayin':
Soak up the sunshine
into your soul,
Soak up the summer,
Swallow it whole.

Relish the cool breeze,
bathe in the rain,
baptize the wicked
side of your brain.

Southern Princess,
place your hand upon my tear-soaked face.
now pull away,
for you and I don't share a common fate.
I was broken
when you turned from me to some new sight.
The sun is risin’, now,
maybe everything will be alright.