BREATHE IN
She dreams an angel’s above,
gives him a name, but no wings.
She knows she’s going to fall,
surrounds herself with soft things.
It’s just no way to live.
You can let the joy in.
You’ve got a lot to give.
Breathe in.
She says you can’t live enough
to waste time losing love twice.
She’s learned the rules of the game:
no one wins when you play nice.
Love’s like the ol’ queen-ace trick
If you’re not in it alone,
you can make it stick.
Breathe in.
She hopes to save some time
Still makes the same old mistakes
She says the sound of a sigh’s
the same as the sough of a
heart that
breaks.
© 2025 Tyler Walker (lyrics) and Isaac Walker (music)
DARKER SIDE OF LOVE
In the morning, little darling,
will you come to me?
Will you comfort me?
Last night I had a dream that I was flying.
Last night I had a dream that I was dying.
But it was you that I saw
See you drowning, in the darker side of love.
I can’t take the burden from so far.
Is saying nothing saying enough?
The streetlamps here are broken,
I can see you close in, the closer I come,
drowning in the darker side of love.
In the evening lonely feelings
gather all around. You don’t make a sound.
You never let me see when you’ve been crying
Find a brighter memory to hide in,
though it is long long gone
See you drowning, in the darker side of love.
I can’t take the burden from so far.
Is saying nothing saying enough?
The streetlamps here are broken,
I can see you close in, the closer I come,
drowning in the darker side of love.
Double-crossed by all the lies
life gave to you.
I believed them too.
Now every night you dream a dream of dying
Never could have dreamed that he was flying
Look for the light in the hall
See you drowning, in the darker side of love.
I can’t take the burden from so far.
Is saying nothing saying enough?
The streetlamps here are broken,
I can see you close in, the closer I come,
drowning in the darker side of love.
© 2025 Isaac Walker
DIVIDED
I let my eyes drift closed and see
In the quiet of my memories
A temporary moment
Never to return,
And it wasn’t like I kept you from believing
But it turns out being blind is better than being divided
Divided by truth,
truths that weren’t the same
for me and you.
Turns out we were
divided from the start.
We just had to open up our hearts
before we could fall apart.
Give it all up or give in.
I open up my eyes and see
That I would feel more free
If someone would just tell me
What I already know
And it isn’t like it keeps me from believing
But am I out of my mind? I’m undecided
Divided by truth,
truths that weren’t the same
for me and you.
Turns out we were
divided from the start.
We just had to open up our hearts
before we could fall apart.
Give it all up or give in.
I could feel something between us
Like the breaking down of a door
You carved my heart like a river carves the land
You cut me like the frost that comes unplanned
And I fell
Divided by truth,
truths that weren’t the same
for me and you.
Turns out we were
divided from the start.
We just had to open up our hearts
before we could fall apart.
Give it all up or give in.
© 2025 Isaac Walker
HERCULES
Back then I felt like Hercules
Having smashed a hundred glasses
Having hurled a thousand thoughtless words
Against a backward broken man in the mirror
A man I didn’t know
Don’t idolize no man
He will only disappoint you
I was carried into the sky
Looked down at the concrete land
I started to fall, I needed fly
But my wings were made of sand
The outcast and the famous man
Are brothers in their loneliness
Leave the windows open, feel the night
While it’s warm enough to let the curtains fly
My mind I do not know
Don’t idolize no man
He will only disappoint you
I was carried into the sky
Looked down at the concrete land
I started to fall, I needed fly
But my wings were made of sand
Back then I felt like Hercules
Having smashed 100 glasses
Having locked myself in a lonely room
Tearing apart what was left of the pieces
My heart I do not know
Don’t idolize no man
He will only disappoint you
I was carried into the sky
Looked down at the concrete land
I started to fall, I needed fly
But my wings were made of sand
© 2025 Isaac Walker
JOSEPHINE
She looks like a sepia photograph
I follow her into the past
Josephine
She looks like the last of the candle’s flame
when she starts to fade
drawing me close again
Josephine
I don’t want you to go
But please don’t stay
I made a wrong turn
Going down a one-way
It’s not that I’m a bad man
Or that you are worse than me
But I can’t keep you from changing
Oh Josephine
She sounds like a book that I haven’t read
She says these pretty things
Josephine
She sounds like a ripple of water
When she said I love you
I told her that it’s no throwaway line
Josephine
I don’t want you to go
But please don’t stay
I made a wrong turn
Going down a one-way
It’s not that I’m a bad man
Or that you are worse than me
But I can’t keep you from changing
Oh Josephine
She looks like a sepia photograph
I follow her into the past
Josephine
She looks like the last of the candle’s flame
when she starts to fade
drawing me close again
Josephine
I don’t want you to go
But please don’t stay
I made a wrong turn
Going down a one-way
It’s not that I’m a bad man
Or that you are worse than me
But I can’t keep you from changing
Oh Josephine
© 2025 Isaac Walker
MAKENZIE
My head and my mind are in different places
But my heart and my body keep traveling on
The sunrise and set of a new love
Played again like an old song
Headed on back to you darling
Though you broke me and left me to die
I’ve been all alone for a long time
So let’s give it another try
Take your time, McKenzie
In making me the man I wanna see
Please be kind, McKenzie
But I know you won’t be kinder than you ever meant to be
Take your time, McKenzie
In making me the man I wanna see
Please be kind, McKenzie
But I know you won’t be kinder than you ever meant to be
The ironclad face of the skyline
A man-made mountain of steel
Give me your reason for leaving
And I’ll tell you how I truly feel
I’m walking alone in a crowd of people
To someplace, but I don’t know where
Maybe I’ll find a stranger to turn to
And act like I’m already there
Take your time, McKenzie
In making me the man I wanna see
Please be kind, McKenzie
But I know you won’t be kinder than you ever meant to be
Take your time, McKenzie
In making me the man I wanna see
Please be kind, McKenzie
But I know you won’t be kinder than you ever meant to be
© 2025 Isaac Walker
OH MARIE
Oh Marie, you’re so naive
You look at the world from under the brim of your baseball cap and the tint of your sunglasses
Shows you the world the way it ought to be
Oh Marie
Oh Marie, it’s make-believe
You write it all down in your little book tryna fit life in, in between your job and the gym
And an episode of Grey’s Anatomy
Oh Marie
Oh Marie, do you know how to grieve?
Tell me girl, what happens when the dreams you’ve always had are old and faded
You’re looking so close that you can no longer see
Oh Marie
© 2024 Isaac Walker
SEND ME A LETTER
Send me a letter
Tell me what you’ve been doing lately
I think it’s better than a phone call
‘Cause I can hold it in my hand for a while
If there’s no time to waste
Why are you still here
There’s nothing I can do
I’m just standing around killing time
It was the coldest day of summer
And I could tell that you already knew it
I was supposed to have a good time
But I couldn’t
Cause I knew it was the last time
I called you pessimistic
You looked at me and said don’t be naive
If we were granite statues tall and grave
we’d never fake a smile or feel pain
Trying to pretend
It’s not anything new
But there’s nothing I can do
And I’m just standing around killing time
It was the coldest day of summer
And I could tell that you already knew it
I was supposed to have a good time
But I couldn’t
Cause I knew it was the last time
Send me a letter
Tell me what you’ve been doing lately…
© 2026 Isaac Walker
SOMETIMES
Moments keep on rolling by
But the past is an immovable stone
You can’t give it away or take it back
It’s been good to spend some time alone
But it’s nice to know that someday I’ll fall in love again
‘Cause I’m getting lonely again
Sometimes I just wanna go home
Sometimes I just wanna say I love you
Sometimes I just need a friend
I was getting near the edge
I looked around and you were gone
While I was staring straight ahead
So I’ll keep looking for the right one
Is it a logical dream, that I’ll fall in love again
Cause I’m on my own again
Sometimes I wanna talk about something hard
Sometimes I wanna laugh at something stupid
Sometimes I just need a friend
Hangers in the closet
Quarters in a drawer
Scratches on the table
Reminders on a door
Trying to decide just what I’m looking for
Trying to decide if I’ll fall in love again
Trying to realize that I’ve ended up alone again
Sometimes I just wanna go home
Sometimes I just wanna say I love you
Sometimes I wanna talk about something hard
Sometimes I wanna laugh at something stupid
Sometimes I just need a friend
© 2025 Isaac Walker
STAINED GLASS
I had a minute to talk to you today
On the haul home from the hospital in Dane
Gray clouds high and white lines low
There wasn’t much to say
Just a couple of stories, the same as tomorrow
When is the last time you thought of life as something new
I had always hoped you’d take the different view
And when is the last time you talked about a dream flying away
You look through the bottom of the bottle every day,
but the world outside won’t look the same
Because the years seep in and now the glass is stained
It’s hard to play your hand, when every card’s a knife
Grinding down the gravel on a back road every night
We were just trying to unwind, broken glass and a broken life
And you told me a good crowd was hard to find
When is the last time you thought of life as something new
I had always hoped you’d take the different view
And when is the last time you talked about a dream flying away
You look through the bottom of the bottle every day,
but the world outside won’t look the same
Because the years seep in and now the glass is stained
How long has it been since I let you down
I guess you lied when you said I’ll see you round
They say no wild rivers can be buried underground
Our lives have washed away like silt and sand
When is the last time you thought of life as something new
I had always hoped you’d take the different view
And when is the last time you talked about a dream flying away
You look through the bottom of the bottle every day,
but the world outside won’t look the same
Because the years seep in and now the glass is stained
© 2024 Isaac Walker
SUMMER GIRL
Summer girl, why you gotta leave in January?
You leave me cold–it’s so cold in this city.
I know you’ll be back someday
you bring the things that flowers bring
you sing the song the birds will sing in the summer.
I watch the graying sky
waiting for daffodils to die
curl of carrot flower stalk
makes meadows white with new hemlock
Shadows seem–to last all winter in these empty alleys
The buildings rise–but they are temporary
relief from the biting winds
that come around – with lonely sounds
to get me down. It all compounds in the winter.
I watch the graying sky
waiting for daffodils to die
curl of carrot flower stalk
makes meadows white with new hemlock
Now even the street under my feet separates
the concrete cracks and separates
it separates
Summer girl, why you gotta leave in January?
You leave me cold–it’s so cold in this city.
I know you’ll be back someday
you bring the things that flowers bring
you sing the song the birds will sing in the summer.
© 2025 Tyler Walker & Isaac Walker
TIME
Maybe I’ll be the canary in your coal mine
I would be the one to tell you you’re safe
I could be who you turn to
If you need someone to stand in the way
What if I turn down the chance of a lifetime
To watch one more cloud roll by
Those weren’t the words I was hoping
To hear or deliver
Time doesn’t care for humans
Time doesn’t care for Earth
Time only cares for doin’
refinin’ and grindin’ us all down to dust
I could see light coming through covered windows
But you know that’s no good reason to stay
Not that you care or that I was ungrateful
Things came out wrinkled in a charming way
I didn’t leave cuz i know where i’m goin
Or cause I planned to be a better man
Crumble or sink and start looking for something
Or someone to pull you towards land
Time doesn’t care for humans
Time doesn’t care for Earth
Time only cares for doin’
refinin’ and grindin’ us all down to dust
I spread myself thin
hoping to hide my mistakes
But I was wrong
I shoulda known I would find them…
Time doesn’t care for humans
Time doesn’t care for Earth
Time only cares for doin’
refinin’ and grindin’ us all down to dust
© 2026 Isaac Walker