SURPRISE SURPRISE Around the block Won’t you give the thing a twirl Remember every right turn is a wide left For any asshole on his phone Can’t keep their eyes on the road Eyes on the road So puzzle my suspicions Carry my heartache to higher ground Clarity don’t bury me here now Cause I’m enough to know When all the doubts are leaking out Without you So tell me what you don’t know Surprise surprise another greatest fear Oh my God let’s have a decent cry about it I’m right here so I can let you go I can let you go Hey mom you’re angry And you passed it on to me on the sly And I try to let it walk Around the yard some nights Dad I think grandpa seemed indifferent You held on to this with interest But you showed me all the exits With your eyes To you your faith always a boundary To me it was a gulp of open sky The exits all surround you in a theater on fire Here come the Holy Spirit Teach me the science of design So tell me what you don’t know Surprise surprise another greatest fear Oh my god let’s have a decent cry about it I don’t know all I’ve survived Could you come around? Help me remember Cause I can’t say what I’ll become If your not around to help me remind myself Kingdom come Your will be done Kingdom come in spite of all the shit I done © Tom Troyer 2024

THE FEVER I had a couple good years I built a golden age One gig at a time I earned every dime Selling my intellect - my truth Without the hurt of breaking through I was intimidating yet approachable too Till I was derailed by a humble flu Now I’m blessed with all this Unspent inspiration I wouldn’t wish this upon my enemies I wouldn’t wish this upon my enemies But I hope they die for it I wrote the most toxic, twisted love songs For the girls back home Would have played nice at a Walmart At the ending of days Could have been covered By a jealous Tom Waits Too shy Afraid Of putting my mom in an early grave I threw them filthy love songs away But she died anyway Now I’m blessed with all this Unspent inspiration I wouldn’t wish this upon my enemies I wouldn’t wish this upon my enemies But I hope they die for it I been watching my mother’s slow death From a distance They say her body been slowing down For decades Probably started in the fourth grade When the fever moved into her lungs Went and colonized Now he rents it to his friends On the weekends I hear their feverish chatter And I can’t determine My mom from her neighbors Their Judah her Benjamin New or Old Testament You know the temperament You seen it on the news And we got complicated feelings About the scope and course of healing And I thought Another twenty years could have healed her But the doctor decided to bring her home And now I’m blessed with All this unspent inspiration I wouldn’t wish this upon my enemies I wouldn’t wish this upon my enemies I wouldn’t wish this upon wish this upon you Why did it come to me? ©Tom Troyer 2024

Silk screen print show posters Student art and canvas fill the basement Decades of your movements Mirrors in the catacombs are waiting If I could paint the sky I’d only want to see it reflect in your eye Meet me in the morning Wearing my favorite disguise Barefoot from my belly Toes in two-step catching double time Neon layers echo through the moods Of hyper-violet “catching the light” Styrofoam statues in their process Taking the shape of notes and chords Of paradigm change If I could paint the sky I’d only want to see it reflect in your eyes Meet me in the morning wearing My Favorite Disguise