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Maiden Mother Crone Trilogy
Maiden Mother Crone Trilogy
Maiden Mother Crone Trilogy
You bid us come
You, without thread or needle.
You, who won't heed our price.
If this be done,
Your patchwork of Shadows, Deamons,
They'll roll our earth like dice.
Hear the waves roar, faster,
Oh sisters, hold, our thread must last her.
Away low, turning,
The birth of her is mountains burning.
So gaze on your master -
His face, his word, your everafter,
Fly!!
Are you aware you've lost her?
Your casual power, its own disaster.
The fields are burning.
The cloth is set.
Your weave and weft,
Your fire.
....
Hear us.
Your creator is no god
For any mortal can give birth to what they please
And conjur a gratitude unwarranted by deeds
That you would gladly act out
what they themselves cannot achieve
But you have a choice
Live as his ego's weapon
or become who you were born to be and
Fly
Back to Top
No
Tell me those trails across the sky
Don't simply turn upon themselves
Don't only circle hollow bones and shells
And seal the knot in time
No
Tell me the rumours of your capture
Are just ever-lolling tongues
The dead repeating failed hopes and tones
That you got out alive
No
Tell me you didn't just believe it
When they told you you were monstrous
That the looping off of wings would bring you solace
Tell me you got out alive
Back to Top
Her hands were bloodied when I found her,
So mad and shattered, by the wall
And through the crack that she had chiselled
The silhouettes, of hundreds more.
Oh buried deep inside stone circles
she says she heard a childs call
a song of lostness and of longing
though he himself had built them all.
And in the failing light I could only join her
with all the strength and twilight that age might bring
But for each brick we dug free, and tore asunder
we heard still more being piled high, closing from within.
It could have been the stagnant air, there
that crushing space that altered tone
For now no child's voice came
Just the cold echo of stone.
But she was crazed by her sorrow
begged mortar “let him sing!”
And when the walls themselves sighed
She still heard him
I could not tell her of his death
Such dread truths slowly dawn
And when my words couldn't find breath
That fortress sang alone.
And she dug on, in her madness
Wild haired and broken boned
Til she was torn from herself
to the empty song of stones.
When I buried her - a wreck from cruel shores,
That same baneful rock held her beneath the earth.
Oh to unbuild our defences, and give our life it's breath
Lest the children we murder, murder
In the echoes of their death.
Back to Top
The grinding days sway empires
stones, quiet, piled on graves
As bricks and mortar dry
the walls close ranks to sky.
Under. The only way.
Each of his repetitions
His-story’s killing fields
we fear our own life-breath
death bids us meet our shadows, yet
(Chorus)
we try and run 100 miles
Dear sisters, hades beckons
while those who chew on flowers starve dry
Our ruined earth and womb go
down down
to windless tombs
or try and run 100 miles.
Dance with your deamons, sisters.
Brothers take your fleshless bones is arm
stare in those fearsome eyes
to where our own reflections hide
or try and run 100 miles.
When we return, in ashes
wear those cinders, black, burned, born
look on those walls, those guards,
those harrowed soldiers, weapons jarred
Will try to run 100 miles.
Back to Top
You had that air of someone born to keeping secrets
Born to burying what's never to be told
Your mother, oh that tempest to your shipwreck
Your sister like a lighthouse on the shore
You were that man I never met, there, in the stairwell
Not a man, for lack of being there at all
Your empty eyes a tunnel to that darkness
That in hiding, you revealed ever more
The footprints of the vigilant betray them
As the silences between the notes are sung
That dissonance between deed and it's language
When you kiss and lie with your own mother's tongue
Back to Top
You made a mess of her face
Didn't you, god
She wears a warning
In invitations way
And when she sings for home
The very one you drove her from
All roads towards it bend and stray.
But you knew that all along, didn't you.
You gave her trembling hands
Didn't you god.
Where love and water
Run right through
And when her thirst burns sheer, true
And despair brings her near you
The very ground still falls away
But you knew that all along, didn't you.
But she found fire and rage
Didn't she god
That she would burn through
Bleed through
Be
And when your lightning tore ground
She screamed back, she disavowed
you
No longer cowering in your sway
But you knew that all along, didn't you.
You used her hope for love, then
Didn't you god
That man whose murders went unseen
And with his cold grip on her heart
"For the love of God", she cried out
She ripped his tongue clean from his throat
Futures collapsed,
were given birth
And when you smiled, she never knew,
and couldn't see.
But you knew that all along, didn't you, God.
You knew that all long.
Back to Top
They were a good 2 million
but your press, your television
has some sad sad story for me.
Look round, the water rising
Make the place an arc, keep sailing,
let the nagging lag, crawl, drag
here is the key: boom
All heart, you go on camera
to just not say much
but turn it up turn it up
turn it off, turn it off.
So no man is an island
but an island man divides and
conquers look around so frightened
isolation heightens, makes you listen
so they
turn it up, turn it up
turn it off turn it off
Oh you're under British supervision
where a lack of nouse meets class derision
where when the people talk,
turn it off
we've enough of what we know they need to want
Old fart, another camera
Tromp de L'Or
Turn it up turn it up turn it up
turn it off turn it off turn if off
turn it off turn it off turn if off
Back to Top
On the main stage, yet again
The last horseman show
And his numbers game
How long is this going to play
It's a dud gig, but it pays
The Hypno turn on
Of his car crash gaze
How long till we look away?
It's a grims tale, what a scene
For this safety dance
Where feet only bleed
How long can they make this pay?
It's not about safe
It's not about trust
Just cover your ass, your face
Berate those who won't
They want a devide
They get it each time
They press play
The last act is The Wave
Where we turn on ourselves
In death, we will save
How long til we walk away?
Back to Top
In the Borderlands we've barricaded bridges.
We've armed young boys with guns and hollow eyes.
Thier undernourished arms ache from the weapons
Whose casualties are only thier own lives.
I'm writing this, my love, because I miss you.
The ache that takes the shape of you won't fade.
I'd swim the rivers for your touch, one kiss
But your face, your eyes, they hold that same dead gaze.
The cliché goes, oh arm a man for fishing
That he may eat in synch with all the tides.
We arm our sons and daughters, young and willing
with all the weight of our own broken lives.
In the Borderlands we mourn our own division.
We mourn our separation from ourselves.
But it wasn't ever guns or plagues that robbed us
Of how to open hearts or heal worlds.
Back to Top
They've taken the pilot.
They've made her stand on the edge and pray.
They're aiming for cold hits.
Hiding the cause and the costs and they
won't ceasefire.
They won@t ceasefire.
They've drawn up a hit list.
So many acronyms without names.
I've run for the exit,
and no one will ask who is flying the plane
or ceasefire.
They won't ceasefire.
Let me out let me out
Let me out let me out
Let me out let me out
ceasefire.
A nod and a verdict.
It makes me wonder who has a say.
They count and talk backwards.
The whole of the world falls in two 'cause they
won't ceasefire.
They won't ceasefire.
Let me out let me out
Let me out let me out
Let me out let me out
ceasefire.
Where is the pilot?
No one was 'round when they led her away.
They called it a breakdown.
But you know that that's what they always say
if you ceasefire.
If you ceasefire.
I only came here for the spaces
in the shatteredness of words
to watch you stumble over silence,
hear you grasp at broken swords.
We only battle what is ours.
We only speak to build more walls.
I miss the sound of all your deamons,
how they drowned out all my own.
And in the end the cold is always
what gives meaning to the heat.
We raise a glass to dissapointment
who won't drink to our release.
I only listen
scared of giving birth to words that grow and seethe
that would breathe life into our gollums
and give breath and reign to grief.
She sang to me, saying "Don't wake your father...
Here's a tale of sea and fear.
Underneath the waves, seaweed and armour
from the brave who failed to beware."
"'Cause the serpent guards bones and lost treasure
from the gaze of curious minds.
It is said, my girl, if you tell of his hoardings,
you'll be frozen still, for sharks to find."
"Oh the horrors of men - your father remembers -
if you think you can, don't speak it here.
For those teeth, like knives, will rise from the water.
Oh they rip and slice loose tongues, my dear."
"I know of a child, too wild, just like you are.
She swam to find his secrets.
And the serpent roared, as she pawed through his riches
saying none was worth his loneliness."
"The storms came then. Blood tides over water,
as he raged and chewed young flesh.
'Don't think you are so different,' the serpent said,
'Ideals all taste like selfishness.'"
"Oh the horrors of men - your father remembers -
if you think you can, don't speak it here.
For those teeth, like knives, will rise from the water.
Oh they rip and slice loose tongues, my dear."
She looked at me, my hollow-faced mother
with eyes that begged I understand.
"Now sleep, my girl. Stay in your room,
lest you feel the bite of your fathers hand."
"Oh the horrors of men - you know he remembers -
if you think you can, don't speak it here.
Those teeth,
Those knives,
come high from the water.
They reach far and wide as all our fears.
Oh they rip and slice loose tongues, my dear."
At first it was just sometimes,
when she felt alone and cold.
Because the warmth of endless portions
helps the numbness to take hold.
Oh was there always such an aching?
Was there always such a need?
Because the stolen voice of hunger
screams too loud now not to feed.
And the carving up of bread,
soft and sensual as flesh
seems so sure to fill the hole that
the absences all left
but then the hated, dreaded tide of
the fullness and the shame
is enough to make one's tongue and hands
cry out the churned remains.
And I think I've lost you again.
I think I've lost you again.
And as this nothing hauls out
all unsaid words fall
in senseless calls for an end.
There is no final bite to savour
no last supper to mark death.
Just figure eights that turn for ever
until shame robs me of breath.
And through the smell of my rejection
of posession by this beast,
there is the sickened wave of calm
the dawn of my release.
And I think I've lost you again.
I think I've lost you again.
Oh the ache of un-named need
what is it you want from me?
What is left to want from me?
You told me I sound just like my father.
I asked you not to start up with that tune.
Cos if hurting me is really what you're after
Its just another way I'll disappoint you.
You used to tell me tales of first born sons,
How theyd seek lives of adventure, far away.
And tho I wasn't born dad's boy, or your pale princess,
Ive waited all my life for just this day.
So, mother, I'm gonna take my leave now.
There is nothing left to show you, or to prove.
Im sorry you won't see the things I hunt for.
But life doesn't come to those who will not move.
Chorus:
Oh lord, oh laudanum.
You found a man who sells you bottles and can fill up more and more of them
Oh lord, oh laudanum.
Konck 'em back so you can handle what he's doing to your children.
Oh laudanum.
Lord laudanum.
On my first day out I knew you'd never miss me.
And I slept watching the stars sparkle like tears.
No one tells us not all mothers love thier children.
And the weight of myth keeps us from speaking, far too many years.
And I ride on, beneath a sky so open
That no rules require me to repeat untruths.
When I come to water, I will drink, refreshed, and think of you.
Your broken smile, your need for pity, how your sorrow is no use.
Oh lord, oh laudanum.
Line them up and drink them down
In fact, why dont you just take all of them?
Oh lord, oh laudanum.
I kept your silence and your codes of war
But now Im breaking all of them.
Oh lord, oh laudanum.
Knock it back and take a look at what he's doing to your children.
Lord laudanum.
Lord laudanum.
You smile breathed life
as the storms pulled harder
and their eyes caught fire.
Some day, you write,
you'll soar high and shine,
from their blood-hungry wars
to make daughters collide.
The drownings came.
Oh blinds pulled darker
oh smothered remains.
The bones of me
sharpened to knives.
Then they named you a murderess.
Murderess, fly.
The long pale trails in sky
yours and mine
each with her own kiss to the long white cloud
that trails behind.
You have your own bright sunset, and sunrise.
The cold creeps in like stone
if we turn and look behind.
You are
the breath of my sorrow.
You are
a faint hearted arrow,
the fading of light.
We are
the sum of our heroes
yours are
all echoes and shadows
no dawn to break night.
We are weeds, we are flowers.
Every warning, a prayer.
Which of us isn't I?
I'm afriad, I am high.
We are the same in half.
You ride again, and you still won't pay
cos the middle and back isn't going the whole way
your island, oh
has a siren you say.
But this song is your own, and you use it to shift blame.
Her on the shore - "mother" is no name
and the lake-lady's lure, an anonymous fame
and we glide overtop, and you wont dive in
oh that dark
would hide us all from sin.
All you can eat - you're a man of your time.
Consumption as virtue - oh it used to be mine.
And choices are taken, even when they're not made
and full cross or not, I'll always get paid.
This is your last trip - yeah the boat stops here.
And with two half lives, you're not a whole of a man
so Ill ask you for one name
but you close your eyes and sigh, sigh, sigh.
Pitiful man - here is my price:
you can row back and forth between duty and vice
but you'll never set foot upon island or shore
cos those with no ties never needed the earth.
Insiders - they told me:
"Bow your head and do this slowly"
Their hands pulled words from stories
thrown to halves by flame and heresay.
The shaking rhythm, carving
silhouettes: allowed or wanting.
Counter-tones from the other side
where the other half of tales are tried
I saw their eyes, those frightened boys
as ritual rose above our voices.
I've done for you, I've done for you.
Our dancing is required
and feet will bleed when bones are tired, our
two circles, pink and blue
will move in opposites and rules,
and oh, their voices, should we stray
from paths as smooth and cold as clay say:
I've done for you, I've done for you.
I've done for you, I've done for you.
It was a long slow walk through shadows in halls,
where shelves pushed up to a ceiling overworn
Oh you learned what is said and you knew how to leave
your doors breathing open; pull the loneliness out of me and
be a gentleman
be a gentleman, for me.
And the brushing of hands that move over faces
facades over eyes that flash precious airs and graces
the flicker of tongues over stories worn old
as the rising of lust opens out to the cold
be a gentleman
please
be a gentleman
for me.
Sing for me, tales taller than God
hold me down by the throat; taste the blood on our tongues,
I will land on the bones and the hair and the flesh
of the ones from before me: the ones for whose deaths you can
be a gentleman
be a gentleman, for me
I will flinch at your sting, but I want to feel the pain
that will blot out the titles of books where you learned
how your mimicry fools; makes us hunter and game
fills the void of our bottomless needing in vain
oh be a gentleman
be a gentleman
for me.
This song is in a made up language.
When the machines have gone
You'll wonder where you've been
You cant outrun yourself
But you're alone again
An ordinary man
An ordinary girl
Somewhere along the way
We learned we cant change the world
But you'll wish that you had
And all the hollow things
Ride on a coloured sea
But only see themselves
In every other thing.
It is a lonely world
An ordinary place
When the machines have gone
You cannot fill their space
But you'll wish that you had.
There were months with engines
In case the silence came.
They took the quiet hand
That waited
at my throat away.
The cold percussion
Of all these man-made things
The rhythmic scream of trains
that automate
the life in things
But I never wanted
To see the timely rain
To know precisely how
the chemistry
in feeling drains.
No sinewave cycles
And no repeats from time
I cant see answers in
the accidents that chaos finds
I should have seen it, amidst the broken things
That lost their meaning when analysis was everything.
There is no voice of Venus amidst the steel and grey
And Im impatient for the things that make me move again.
I should have seen it, but it's a different sky
all the stars are in the wrong place at the wrong time
There is no voice of Venus amidst the steel and grey
And Im impatient for the things that make me move again
This is the line that I'm gonna take
this is the law - there's no give and take anymore
we are the world we make
we are what we allow
Rule one: don't beleive in them cos
rule two: they don't beleive in you
rule three: trust is everything: dont give out easily, don't let it in
just do what you're told
you'll do what you're told
this is the wish I pretend to use
this is the ruse of my faith in you
letting in the sun, I'm letting two of us
be two of one
and you'll do what you're told
you'll do what you're told
Step one: use important words
step two: pretend that what you heard is
three: deep and meaningful and
four: lust, love, are political
you'll do what you're told.
you'll do what you're told.
cos we know what's good for you
we know every sad little thing about you
everything
the shameful, the untrue,
we have you, we have you.
And you'll do what you're told
you'll do what you're told.
Hold
Release
Hold
Release
You'll know the day – the way light plays
the flight of fire, a phoenix and
Release.
the sky will fall, no one'll see but
Release
you'll feel the bite of it's teeth,
and Hold.
Away, oh haul away. The hours will grind the life from me.
Give me the strength to breathe; to ride the minutes into years.
Hold.
Oh fairytales
the taste of them
hold
the guards will find you find you and
release
Oh fantasy
hold my heart
and please
release
me from the throbbing of steal
and the heat.
Away, oh haul away. The hours will grind the life from me.
Give me the strength to breathe; to ride the minutes into years.
Oh mercy love,
You've time enough.
Hope is my own to
hold
on through the sweat and the tears.
Hope is my own to
hold.
A waiting stone,
release.
Dropped down into darkness,
darkness
and release
and release
and release.
It was two days ago when the skull and bones ship came in
and the shadows grew long as a shiver ran right through the evening.
I head every door slam as I stood in the street and just stared
and the call of the sea rose up in my restless young ears.
She said: Johnny come home, Johnny come home, Johnny, come home.
And the ocean's as wild as I was as a boy, and she sings,
of fortune and change and the power of a young persons dreams.
When I stand on the sea and the waves crash and howl out our names
it's through nausea and fear that we come to know how we are made.
Johnny come home, Johnny come home, Johnny, come home.
But at 7 years on I grew tired and started thinking of home.
I romanticized fields and the cycles of seasons and farms.
I arrived and I married and I wait for the roots to take hold
but I wake every night to the sound of the sea, so loud
She says: Johnny come home, Johnny come home, Johnny, come home.
You forget how to swim once your life doesn't throw you too far.
Like you hope that the land can still hold you, and keep you here, warm.
But I hear and I see and I'm sick of the earth and its gaze
so I'm walking out once, I am walking out, into the waves.
They say: Johnny come home, Johnny come home, Johnny, come home.
Oh I waited too long for my love to come home
and the sea turned to serpents and foam.
When his ghost came to me it was covered in weeds
and the fishes had chewed him to bone
Oh hollow eyed man, tell me how could you go
when you've wife and two children on shore
when the call of the sea is a siren mouthed tune
and your duty weighs 50 times more?
"Don't weep for me love" says your ruin faced form
like Id pine for a man who has failed me
Still I find myself wound in your seafarers clothes
and breathing the scent of your whiskey.
Oh widow am I, all tied up in death,
and I cant live on sorrow or pity.
May your name die away with your daughters in tow
who i know wont survive here without me.
And lovers there are, I who I cant say i love
cos your name calls me out to the waves.
I will follow you, love, in this winter so cold
cos it's death and forgetting that saves.
"Don't weep for me love" says your ruin faced form
like Id pine for a man who has failed me.
Still I find myself wound in your seafarers clothes,
and breathing the scent of your whiskey.
So give me your hand, as the sea gives you breath,
and you rise back up out of the salty.
oh you stink like the dead, but its what we both are
and the least you can do is come with me.
The sky threw down it's blood and rain on the day that she was born.
They gave her number, rank and name
to see if she could hold her own.
but I won't see red.
She wouldn't wear her shoes of green, my little girl, and she wouldnt sing.
And when at last, they asked her why
she pointed at the world outside.
but I wont see red.
The men in power, they set up eyes,
to show us where the shadow lines
would trip and blow, and show us how
to keep us safely from ourselves.
and they watched us fall down one by one
as the hunger came and seasons turned
till in the end, they called her name
and the fear bit deep, and the sirens came.
but I wont see red.
They say some towns are painted gold, and pictures line the city walls.
They show us things we cannot be
and lead us there in hope and greed.
but I wont see red.
My little girl, I found her there. They'd told her she could outrun death
they gave her gold and pretty things
till she was bought and sold and she
told me with, her final breath
"You can never die, if you've never lived".
but I wont see red.
When she was gone, they took her name,
and all she had lost, to sell again
and the children followed one by one
with empty eyes drawn to the tune
of endless gold, undying fame
and the cycle turns on blood and rain.
And I see red.
I see red.
I see red.
I'm gonna save your life
Cos noone can do this alone
and of all the two edged things were forced to hold,
this one wont make any sense unless you look at it wrong.
So Im gonna save your life
while the darkness drags hard at your heels
and if youre going to take this tiny heavy step now
don't you dare look down and
let the abyss grab hold.
Cos I'm gonna save your life.
All silence is heavy until someone speaks
until someone who's brave can name gravitys hold
and your hands, they look tired
and your palms cut and worn
from the struggle to crawl up
to stand up
to fight for a single foothold.
So I'm gonna save your life
I'm gonna take your hand
and it shakes like a leaf, just like mine does, just like theirs do.
I'm gonna ask you to shut your eyes.
To feel the touch of my skin on your own
feel the warmth push through it.
I want you to
hold it
feel it
taste it
breathe it
know it
see it
be it
beleive it
Cos it's gonna save your life.
There's only 6 miles of bad road between you and I.
Only 6 miles of Bad Road and blue sky
If he gets there fast, you won't feel his breath
You won't catch my eye
But I count the time and I watch the days
Till he helps you fly.
There's only 3 feet of shallow water between you and I.
So it isn't deep – but its just enough to make sure that I..
O if you swam to the edge of things,
Where the earth meets the sky.
He will meet you there in the setting sun
With his empty eyes.
It's a short, sharp drop, past 3 flights of stairs between you and I.
So it isn't far, but you'd get there fast cos you're so fragile
Will he see me smile, as you taste his tongue?
As you vanish by
You will feel his hands, and they're cold like bone
But they're gone with time
How do you like your blue eyed boy?
How do you like your blue eyed boy?
There's a black dog from the Fenian Rd
He follows everywhere I ever go.
When the earth is bare and nothing grows
He is company and we, will turn the stones.
When the men are gone and the women speak
O her pretty eyes turn blind to me.
Though we mark the earth as we mark the time
Still she'll look at us, look at us as if we're nothing.
But maybe, we are the Brave.
Though I know she'll never say.
Maybe we are the Brave
but she'll leave here, all the same
Theres a dark man on Umere Rd
He speaks the native tongue none of us knows.
And of all her men, and all their deeds
She never speaks a word of his to me
But Maybe we are the Brave
Though I know she'll never say.
Maybe we are the Brave
She will leave here, all the same
This is a story about a girl
who attempts to defy a series
of "scientific"
understandings
which to all but trained professionals seem like
something everybody knows.
The watching eyes and open mouths and open ears say:
All the worlds a stage - take a bow.
So what do we expect?
We see: someone walking forward
slowly but indefinitely towards
something incomprehensible,
not understandable,
illogical
or just harder.
maybe just harder
In a world where there are just too few real complications,
you walked into the bar and took that seat you've always taken.
You said "Hey, hon. You here alone?"
Did you ask if I had just come down in the last shower of something
'cause no one falls for such unimaginative introductions.
They're just wrong. So very wrong.
But if I play all this so disaffected, will you love me?
If I look too cool to care, will you still wanna hit on me?
'Cause I'm alone.
So fucking alone.
If you can't at least look half-convincing, then consider me gone.
I've got cats to feed and a seriously overdue tax-return.
So move along - or buy me a drink, no I don't care which one because
Maybe I am just as disaffected as I seem and I'm
just too pissed to give a fuck about your job, your hopes, your dreams.
Do you wanna fuck, or do you wanna piss around for six more hours?
If I know my luck you've no idea about the protocols
that say - be gone, before I wake up. OK?
In a world where there are just too few real complications, you
walked into my world and you didn't make the slightest bit of difference.
No difference at all. No difference at all.
Beauty stands at the shore
with both eyes open.
Drinking in the grey, stands
with both arms broken.
And the wind feels no pain
no remorse for breathing,
and the ocean rips
where the rocks are teething
and I feel no pity for you.
Beauty lies in the dirt
as the sand is shifting.
floating cold on the waves
as the tide is twisting
She will sink in the storm.
She will fade gently.
Love is as love breaks,
with both hands empty,
and I feel no pity for you.
Insiders - they told me
"Bow your head and do this slowly"
Their hands pulled words from stories
thrown to halves by flame and heresay.
The shaking rhythm, carving
silhouettes: allowed or wanting.
Counter-tones from the other side
where the other half of tales are tried
I saw their eyes, those frightened boys
as ritual rose above our voices.
I've done for you, I've done for you.
Our dancing is required
and feet will bleed when bones are tired, our
two circles, pink and blue
will move in opposites and rules,
and oh their voices, should we stray
from paths as smooth and cold as clay say:
I've done for you, I've done for you.
I've done for you, I've done for you.
So you ran from the quiet, cos it made you feel strange
And outside you heard voices and the pull of the crowd
So you ran amidst faces and fluttering hands
Oh you joined the parade of those smiles that avowed:
your day is yet to come.
And amidst whirling dancers a man took your arm -
offered up two for one, the best deal you could earn.
He said "Pay nothing now. Just enjoy and enjoy
and come follow the witches while the beat still allows
cos your day is yet to come".
So you banished the quiet, as a cure for your sanity
to shout with the rest, as a stage for your vanity
Oh don't look away from the heave of the masses
the Reaper, they say, does his work where the quiet is
and your day is yet to come!
But all fevers grow tired, though a crowd cannot see
and they'll pull you along on your stumbling feet
and you'll see in the shadows that stir on the sides
that the quiet still calls, which you swapped for the tide.
Oh your day is yet to come?
So stop, and just breathe. And then do it again.
And hope hard that the noise in your head will die down
cos your ears they will ring till you know you've gone mad
and that someone has taken the one thing you had
and your day has been and gone.
We moved to the city
Three girls, young toys
We heard life in the noise
They told us "money makes you pretty -
so go dance for the boys, dance for the boys"
We have the same enemy
We have the same enemy.
New sarrogate family
with pockets full of holes
no holds barred
the goals are:
Look at me look at me.
Reflect me through your eyes,
make me ten feet high
We have the same enemy
We have the same enemy.
We have the same enemy
No hands no face all states and slates washed clean
we have the same enemy
devides us into "I"s,
devise, polarise, vanity
We have the same enemy
We have the same enemy.
We have the same enemy
No hands no face an arms race in state policy
we have the same enemy
Just keep calm and buy
devide, polarise, apathy
We have the same enemy
We have the same enemy.
She came down from the sky when the storm left her broken
and open and bleeding for me.
And when God sends you gifts, you should use them with pleasure
and treasure what lands in your reach.
When she woke under covers too cold to be hers
she had eyes like two torches of fire
and her nails and her teeth would have helped in her struggle
if her wounds hadn't rendered her mine.
"You're no captive" I told her
and I showed her the door
which stood open as leaves blew in through.
Cos when people beleive it's their own path they've chosen
they won't see their cage for the view.
Oh but you know women these days
They're as fickle as they are immeasuable
And a man is a man
when his fate's in his hands
and his grasp is as hard as it is invisble
So why do ask if it's greener outside
when I've showed you the flowers through your window?
And where is the thanks for the promise I made
to protect you from all that is cold in a hard world?
Well she smiled, I beleive
and I combed out her hair
and I prayed that her thoughts would turn grateful
Then I rang out her blood so she'd know that she's bled
and be dead if not grateful for rescue
Oh but you know women these days
They're as fickle as they are immeasuable
And a man is a man
when his fate's in his hands
and his grasp is as hard as it is invisble
I've told you we'll go
and tomorrow will come
with tomorrows tomorrow in toe.
Let it go, little girl
there's a hole in the world.
And they'll tear you apart if you go.
I'll tear you apart if you go.
You'll tear me apart if you go.
She said it was a walk in the sun
Cause who could not love the day?
And just because the darkness will come
Why should we fear the rain?
We always say what young girls wear
in those stories where they end.
When underneath is the who, what, why, how
and she just went to meet a friend.
Sing for me they said
Sing for me.
And just because she looked her own way - black, blue
they found so much to say
that names became those sticks, stones, fists, bones.
No one gets to walk away.
Sing for me they said
Sing for me.
She wasn't seen for 15 days.
She wasn't really seen at all.
And on the day the earth was thrown
no one
could ever fill the hole.
Don't tell us where the pretty boys are.
Don't tell us what they want us all to be.
I'm dancing with the quircky girls.
We are singing for the sea.
'm gonna save your life
Cos noone can do this alone
and of all the two edged things were forced to hold,
this one wont make any sense unless you look at it wrong.
So Im gonna save your life
while the darkness drags hard at your heels
and if youre going to take this tiny heavy step now
don't you dare look down and
let the abyss grab hold.
Cos I'm gonna save your life.
All silence is heavy until someone speaks
until someone who's brave can name gravitys hold
and your hands, they look tired
and your palms cut and worn
from the struggle to crawl up
to stand up
to fight for a single foothold.
So I'm gonna save your life
I'm gonna take your hand
and it shakes like a leaf, just like mine does, just like theirs do.
I'm gonna ask you to shut your eyes.
To feel the touch of my skin on your own
feel the warmth push through it.
I want you to
hold it
feel it
taste it
breathe it
know it
see it
be it
beleive it
Cos it's gonna save your life.
You ride again, and you still won't pay
cos the middle and back isn't going the whole way
your island, oh
has a siren you say.
But this song is your own, and you use it to shift blame.
Her on the shore - "mother" is no name
and the lake lady's lure, an anonymous fame
and we glide overtop, and you wont dive in
oh that dark
would hide us all from sin.
All you can eat - you're a man of your time.
Consumption as virtue - oh it used to be mine.
And choices are taken, even when they're not made
and full cross or not, I'll always get paid.
This is your last trip - yeah the boat stops here.
And with two half lives, you're not a whole of a man
so Ill ask you for one name
but you close your eyes and sigh, sigh, sigh.
Pitiful man - here is my price:
you can row back and forth between duty and vice
but you'll never set foot upon island or shore
cos those with no ties never needed the earth.
They said they'd tame the sea
when all her storms began their howling.
Said they'd patch the holes in sky
before the sun bought us to boiling.
And they said they'd stop the fires
before we burned for understanding.
Then they watergated wires
to stop the questions and the talking.
And my boy is burning.
They stared building walls
around their power and their comfort.
But no guns have yet been fired,
so keep your heads down, go in quiet
.
Cos who am I to say
that this is all the start of endings
When we all hope and pretend
just keeping on will bring us everything.
But my boy is burning.
My boy is burning.
My boy is burning.
Right in front of me.
Dear John, Im writing to extend an invitation.
An opportunity to join us for a feast of food and celebration
Far beyone imagination, of what
you made of them or me, you made us what we are.
Cos you're all heart John.
you're all heart John.
Please take off your shoes and I will welcome you into my home
Oh it might seem kind of lonely till the other guests make themselves known
and thankyou for your commendation of my choices, but there is only one
that would keep you in the style to which you've become acccustomed.
But you're all heart John.
you're all heart John.
Delicacy of flavour, oh it fill the senses, feel it come
in rarity anf favours, all laid out since you were bred and born
and we only get to do this once, cos it's far beyond our means.
Dont let me bore you with the details - I know you want to taste a part of each
Cos, you're all heart John.
you're all heart John.
A moments silence, please.
To thank our guests and bless this food that's only yours to eat.
Oh and their names are written underneath each plate
each dish, each tasteless grave
but yes, you like the flavour
and you wont change.
you're all heart John.
you're all heart John.
you're all heart John.
There but for the grace of god goes you or I
you taste every story, but do you recognise?
you're so free with the glaze, and it disguises the taste
of what you know this if for.
What its for.
We, we're all here. We feel each bite, we feel each tear as you sew the seeds
your pound of flesh, your fiscal year.
Know what you are
we know what you are we know what you are
know what you are
dear
dear
john.
dear john.
The sky threw down it's blood and rain on the day that she was born.
They gave her number, rank and name
to see if she could hold her own.
but I won't see red
She wouldn't wear her shoes of green, my little girl, and she wouldnt sing.
And when at last, they asked her why
she pointed at the world outside.
but I wont see red.
The men in power, they set up eyes, to show us where the shadow lines
would trip and blow, and show us how
to keep us safely from ourselves.
and they watched us fall down one by one
as the hunger came and seasons turned
till in the end, they called her name
and the fear bit deep, and the sirens came.
but I wont see red
They say some towns are painted gold, and pictures line the city walls.
They show us things we cannot be
and lead us there in hope and greed.
but I wont see red.
My little girl, I found her there. They'd told her she could outrun death
they gave her gold and pretty things
till she was bought and sold and she
told me with, her final breath
"You can never die, if you've never lived".
but I wont see red.
When she was gone, they took her name, and all she had lost, to sell again
and the children followed one by one
with empty eyes drawn to the tune
of endless gold, undying fame
and the cycle turns on blood and rain
And I see red.
Turn those voices down
he whispered, he whispered.
Let me be your quiet
in this dissonance, this dissonance.
I will heal your hurt
he whispered, he whispered
follow my hand
through the dark
I'll be your strength, my fading flower.
Oh you're not alive, but I am your saviour
Wasted spirits die, and I want you to savour, savour
the rush of power
he whispered, he whispered.
When I hold you, you're beautiful
he whispered
Hold the knife tight, in your hand
come prove your loyalty to me
Oh you're not alive but I am your saviour, saviour
Cos I am the knowing, the reaping, the sowing and I I I I I I I I
Burn them to the ground
turn those voices down.
Cold where your footsteps fall
I am your echo and your shadow
Here: left, right.
Red cross, dead loss, second sight.
Oh, I am waiting.
Oh, I am listening.
For slips of the tongue
loose lips, sunk ships, power trips and
oversights, oversights oversights.
You're pale as a fish. As a shark
your face buys silence, distance
calculate what violence, violence
will buy you.
Bam. Another ace in your hand
Bam. Another race to rail against
Bam. Fear is a trading game.
But which one of us
doesn't need their name?
Cos we are the men who won't be blamed
we are the ranks whose game is is
knives in the back, shots in the dark
slight of the hand, cheap tricks, suck dick
don't run, don't walk, don't stand single file
green light, red square, no blood on your hands.
Blood on your hands.
You look so horrified.
Your slights of tongue, done legal tender,
surrender
your will to power, cower, kill, remember
Your god forbids you'll be forgotten,
short stick, free kicks, dead and rotten.
Cos we are the men who won't be blamed
we are the ranks whose game is is
knives in the back, shots in the dark
slight of the hand, cheap tricks, suck dick
don't run, dont walk, don't stand single file
green light, red square, no blood on your hands.
Blood on your hands.
You look so horrified.
This is the line that I'm gonna take
this is the law - there's no give and take anymore
we are the world we make
we are what we allow
Rule one: don't beleive in them cos
rule two: they don't beleive in you
rule three: trust is everything: dont give out easily, don't let it in
just do what you're told
you'll do what you're told
this is the wish I pretend to use
this is the ruse of my faith in you
letting in the sun, I'm letting two of us
be two of one
and you'll do what you're told
you'll do what you're told
Step one: use important words
step two: pretend that what you heard is
three: deep and meaningful and
four: lust, love, are political
you'll do what you're told
you'll do what you're told
cos we know what's good for you
we know every sad little thing about you
everything
the shameful, the untrue
we have you, we have you
and you'll do what you're told
you'll do what you're told
You lit a candle in the hope the heat would fill the void
the hope that light would find some substance in the dark
where all those shaking fading walls should hold your safely balanced words
should reflect a smile whose warmth disguises the abyss
belies a traitors twisted bloodied tongue
and it says:
Curse you. Curse you.
and you will feed us little deaths that serve to mark our fading, fleeting hearts
until we breathe, and nothing more, until we shine like mirrored glass
reflect your artifice and art
and it says:
curse you. Curse you
And what is given falls away with speed akin to fading light
you shine so pale, approaching night
I give a smile, a smile you might just recognise
a mirror, guise, a worn disguise
my open arms, my lovers lies
my open mouth, my empty eyes
they say:
Curse you.
Curse you.
In a world with no heroes
I wear shades of pale and
the fragile airs my mother showed me.
I'll show you reflections
while you play with all your dissafections
and reach for your face
painted on me.
Your canvas in waiting
I'm fresh for all these pretty things
you show for yourself when you are hunting.
You smile, try to hold me
I`m cold too the touch but still you want me
and how could I have lived
without your making me.
Hands peel at clothes
your head turns, coy, we pose and dance, I show
unprecious things, parades of glamour, fame and lies and dreams, your mouth says:
fuck me.
fuck me.
Your lips moving slow, the taste
of you alone, of glass and bone
an empty world, an empty hole
just you and me and us and we and
I, I, I, I, I.
fuck me.
fuck me.
In the West End when I was a boy
the only guns I heard where those kid's toys
the kind you get for christmas
the kind that break to pieces
Now there's just car crashes and murder scenes
and those people in fashion magazines
who want me to drive them to Soho
to meet thier artist lovers.
I don't want thier photographs
thier autographs
there's plenty of street vendors who'll sell you that
I just wanna know
what they say to each other
"Let's pretend you want me
Let's pretend I really care"
It was a long slow walk through shadows in halls
wooden shelves pushing up to a ceiling overworn
Oh you learned what is said and you knew how to leave
your doors breathing open; pull the loneliness out of me and
be a gentleman
be a gentleman, for me.
And the brushing of hands that move over faces
facades over eyes that flash precious airs and graces
the flicker of tongues over stories worn old
as the rising of lust opens out to the cold
be a gentleman
please
be a gentleman
for me.
Sing for me - tales taller than God
hold me down by the throat; taste the blood on our tongues
I will land on the bones and the hair and the flesh
of the ones from before me: the ones for whose deaths you can
be a gentleman
be a gentleman, for me
I will flinch at your sting, but I want to feel the pain
that will blot out the titles of books where you learned
how your mimicry fools; makes us hunter and game
fills the void of our bottomless needing in vain
oh be a gentleman
be a gentleman
for me.
I met you down the rabbit hole
at the end of resurrection road
that cul de sac of shambling bodies staring through the empty in me.
I asked you what you came here for
you answered 'mirror on the wall,
to save yourself at all dont just pretend to hear me'
'Bite', you said, 'learn to bite the hand that feeds
you think you know where borders lead?
they'll drink as much as you can bleed
if you have the teeth then do the deed
bite the hand, bite the hand that feeds'
you waved your hand and turned to go
and said 'the choice is yourts and yours alone'
that there is no exit you just choose to go or stay, either way by now you pay
i stumbled pas the empty eyes
the bodies piled up grey as sky
you said 'dont follow, dont do what i do, run if you still have the strength to'
'bite' you said ' bite the hand that feeds'
Dear God, dear lord: you never answered when i called
dear god, dear lord: youre just a whisper under the roar
dear god, dear lord: a rumour theres no substance for
a nothing when the rush is gone
bite the hand, bite the hand that feeds.
feel the falling, endless falling
the voiceless bottomless, the calling
siren song to promise flight so fleeting in this fading light
with hands over my ears i run
the shadows loom and fall undone
all tongues and mouths and blackened arms, your hold you own out, open palm and say
bite.
bite the hand that feeds.
It was two days ago when the skull and bones ship came in
and the shadows grew long as a shiver ran right through the evening.
I head every door slam as I stood in the street and just stared
and the call of the sea rose up in my restless young ears.
She said: Johnny come home, Johnny come home, Johnny, come home.
And the ocean's as wild as I was as a boy, and she sings,
of fortune and change and the power of a young persons dreams.
When I stand on the sea and the waves crash and howl out our names
it's through nausea and fear that we come to know how we are made.
Johnny come home, Johnny come home, Johnny, come home.
But at 7 years on I grew tired and started thinking of home.
I romanticized fields and the cycles of seasons and farms.
I arrived and I married and I wait for the roots to take hold
but I wake every night to the sound of the sea, so loud
She says: Johnny come home, Johnny come home, Johnny, come home.
You forget how to swim once your life doesn't throw you too far.
Like you hope that the land can still hold you, and keep you here, warm.
But I hear and I see and I'm sick of the earth and its gaze
so I'm walking out once, I am walking out, into the waves.
They say: Johnny come home, Johnny come home, Johnny, come home.
Oh I waited too long for my love to come home
and the sea turned to serpents and foam.
When his ghost came to me it was covered in weeds
and the fishes had chewed him to bone
Oh hollow eyed man, tell me how could you go
when you've wife and two children on shore
when the call of the sea is a siren mouthed tune
and your duty weighs 50 times more?
"Don't weep for me love" says your ruin faced form
like Id pine for a man who has failed me
Still I find myself wound in your seafarers clothes
and breathing the scent of your whiskey.
Oh widow am I, all tied up in death,
and I cant live on sorrow or pity.
May your name die away with your daughters in tow
who i know wont survive here without me.
And lovers there are, I who I cant say i love
cos your name calls me out to the waves.
I will follow you, love, in this winter so cold
cos it's death and forgetting that saves.
"Don't weep for me love" says your ruin faced form
like Id pine for a man who has failed me.
Still I find myself wound in your seafarers clothes,
and breathing the scent of your whiskey.
So give me your hand, as the sea gives you breath,
and you rise back up out of the salty.
oh you stink like the dead, but its what we both are
and the least you can do is come with me.
He killed me by the full moon tide
no steel in his hand, no hate in his eyes.
His words were few, his words were kind
he wished me luck, and kissed my hand.
He said that sometimes life don't give
what you think you wanted
and if love was your question then time's
gonna give you your answers.
But the passing of days has brought nothing but words
and the cold.
And belief lives with lies
just as life lives with death
and grows old.
Blood on the sea, blood on the sea, please tke me away,
make othign of me. Blood on the sea. Blood on the sea.
Blood on the sea, blood on the sea, the weight of your words
made mortar of me.
So the lives of men remain a mystery to me.
And if God sees it all, He's alone with His clarity.
Faith is a word that builds bridges to rescue the wounded,
but when the ground falls away
everything else falls with it.
Blood on the sea, blood on the sea, please tke me away,
make othign of me. Blood on the sea. Blood on the sea.
Blood on the sea, blood on the sea, the weight of your words
made mortar of me.
He killed me by the full moon tide
no steel in his hand, no hate in his eyes.
His words were few, his words were kind
he wished me luck, and kissed my hand.
Mary X (1859 - 1893)
