‘‘tomorrow i'll be quicker, i'll stare into the strobe light flicker, and afloat i'll stay, but i'm quite alright hiding today. tomorrow i'll be faster, i'll catch what i've been chasing after, and have time to play, but i'm quite alright hiding today’’

• hiding tonight

‘‘i'm not the kind of fool who's gonna sit and sing to you, about stars, girl; but last night i looked up into the dark half of the blue, and they'd gone backwards. something in your magnetism must have pissed them off, forcing them to get an early night, i have been searching from the bottom to the top for such a sight, as the one i caught when i saw your fingers dimming the lights, like you're used to being told that you're trouble, and i spent all night stuck on the puzzle’’

• Stuck on the puzzle

‘‘if the sun's in your eyes, i'll tighten your blindfold, baby, don't worry, your foot won't get cut, strut carelessly. and when you say that you need me tonight, i can't keep my feelings in disguise, the white parts of my eyeballs illuminate; and i'll wait for you as if i'm waiting for the storm to stop, i've heard them talking about how i'm gonna put you off’’

‘‘tell me, how can i put you off when you're a matter of urgency? i've got a million things that i need to do, but they're all secondary [...] and like a grain of diamond dust you float, and my devotion's outer crust cracks’’

• glass in the park

‘‘and even when you know the way it's gonna blow, it's hard to get around the wind’’

• it's hard to get around the wind’

‘‘you look like you've been for breakfast at the Heartbreak Hotel and sat in the back booth by the pamphlets and the literature on how to lose, your waitress was miserable and so was your food’’

• piledriver waltz