0:00/???
  1. Chalk Peddler

From the recording Winters Like These

released March 20, 2020
released March 20, 2020
Lyrics and music by Spencer Ayscue
Performed by Migrant Birds
Artwork by Tara Lancaster Logue
Produced, mixed, and mastered by Geoff Weber in Winston-Salem, NC

Lyrics

I come peddling chalk
Foreign tongues to talk
Tales of distant deserts and the mountains I have walked
Patches at my elbows and my knees
Boxes full of books and melodies
My fingers on the frets begin to freeze
In Spain there are no winters like these

Now I’m tugged between
The figs that I could be
A prophet or a poet or a ship tugged out to sea
But the Massachusetts winter bites deep
I can see the wild ocean in my sleep
I don’t know how long these melodies will keep
Yeah the road to limelight microphones is steep

Doubting won’t relent
The future seems a threat
And I’m trying to read the ending to a book not written yet
If he should want to be a writer let him write
Or track the whistling robin in its flight
Close the lonely stage on Monday
There are battles aplenty left to fight

But oh I say that it will never be my choice
To clench my jaw, surrender up my voice
I will raise my melody above the noise
This chalk will be my crutch, will be my joy