1. |
The Stranded West
01:54
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diluted in the stranded west
a coast of smoke and silhouettes
the core begins to spread its drought
as hope grows frail, depleting into doubt
turn from the shore and go
dying orchids in a vacant home
there are foreign cities built for men like me
beneath branches of looming fever trees
poppy fields pulsing like a scarlet flood
as swans glide through the secure sable mud
turn from the shore and go
no more orchids, no more home
turn from the shore and go
start an untouched life alone.
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2. |
Path To Purity
03:23
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he stumbled out
pulled the plug to drain his doubt
his shadow’s long
it blends in, never truly gone
came to a deserted town, now he’s howlin’
hormones twisted grown like weeds
all he had was a shotgun and a shovel
and a rusted can of gasoline
he crouches low
dancing with a campsite soul
sleeps face to ground
ashamed to live the heavens down
to find the purity in a smoke ring
subtle signal to signify he’s here
but as he affixes his crooked halo
he feels it shift and disappear
laid flat to figure out his target
in a hole that beckons for the south
but as he watches the village burning
he puts the shotgun in his mouth.
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3. |
I'll Never Know
03:23
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return to form, ignore the muse
in the details, a devil’s loose
I can’t let go of the things I’ll never know
hand carved and crude, a painted smile
I tremble nude, please stay awhile
I can’t let go of the things I’ll never know
retching, forced to breathe
so much more I need, remembering
well here we are, tender so few
I run on sand, away from you
I can’t let go of the things I’ll never know
it’s easy not to ask, this healing wouldn’t last
I take my leave, remembering.
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4. |
Wounded Knee
04:27
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only takes one direction unheard
before you’ll fire at close range
watching from a water bed
gun barrels rattling like change
men lying on the crooked gulch
women and children down the ravine
nursing, grasping for the flag of truce
nation’s hoop snapped to dying dream
friendly fire followed by snow
a blizzard to make all of this land clean
the bodies stacked like crumbling chimneys
with slow release, reluctant steam
men reflected along the creek
widows bow in a shaken silence
sliding their bodies down the trenches
below new crosses from tattered fences
one last shot for a ghost dance plea
no red cloud redemption for the scattered coyote.
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5. |
Sirens Wail
02:23
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struggling through charcoal rubble
make your porcelain flesh be flawed for me
I paint you in a watercolor across a blood black sea
your dress of burning leaves
your eyes retreat in a glacier blue
I try myself for the crime of
murdering memories of you
I feel the sweet slow build of calypso’s torrid song
sirens wail in competition as we stroll along
begging for dead letter kiss
landlocked mouth with a fertile tongue
a hanging from your every word, slit
the silken wrists of imprisoned love
the white wash of salvation
jerked forth ‘til the bashful end
I cling to driftwood, hard and hollow
too shallow to wade or pretend
sirens wailing, confined to an island
wind whips and the sound of sirens.
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6. |
Turning Of The Day
04:27
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revived in dreams where I choose to live
a love is born a forced accident
I haven’t changed the sheets since you last laid with me
I wander by your street, lost soles pound concrete
I’ve carved your body clean from wood splintering
I wish that I could change the turning of the day
morose, compose letters I won’t send
slip them under the wheels beneath my bed
the residue it lasts like shadows spilled not cast
absorbing it to pass through blackened sulfur paths
gunpowder prayers cosigned to oblivion I’ve twined
I wish I could dissuade the turning of the day
a dead man’s switch, let’s slow this freight train down
lone conductor with no coal burning now
I haven’t changed the sheets since you last laid with me
the quarters that I keep house hot abhorrent sleep
from the nautical dawn to civil I am drawn
I wish that I could change the turning of the day.
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7. |
Barbarous Beat
03:06
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mouth aching from the clench
the torrent of claws cascade
dangling three, the calusa souls
returning to beasts freshly slain
swaying to a barbarous beat
the pupil, shadow, reflection,
colliding in the glades
the impending nightmare’s rival
scant clad priest, lead, pray
terror travels thriving in four walls
the lonely will be saved
consultations at the tomb
all bear witness, forfeit names
swaying to a barbarous beat
forgotten language, muscle memory
centuries pass, souls grow weak
pleading with the earth to inherit the meek.
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8. |
Graveyard (Dead Moon)
02:23
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it’s a new game causing pain
you know I’ve got you on my brain
it’s the kind of hell you’ll never know
girls like you just turn me cold
but I guess you found my weaker side
resistance, god how I tried
but I’ve got it bad I must confess
to tell the truth I’ve done my best
but you treat me like poison even with the lights on
guess I might as well be dead
oh, I’m in the graveyard
tried whiskey to ease your hex
it made it worse, my life’s a wreck
the pills I took to numb my pain
only brought visions of you again
I’d put the noose around my neck
but the way I feel, I’d probably break
love must be an evil curse
I’ve tried to fight, it just gets worse
your love is like an endless hell
what you do to me you know too well
you won’t give me the time, I’m on the firing line
convicted and disposed, you look but eyes are closed
guess I might as well be dead
oh, I’m in the graveyard.
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9. |
What We Used To Be
03:25
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patient like a preacher
you confessed your whole life
huddled ivory on the porch
there’s a dead moon on the rise
I can’t remember how we made it this far
just to survive, I’ve caused so much harm
there was no more you, no more me
we had to kill what we used to be
madcap like a beggar, expanding on the stretch
the spirits that I carried rest pitted in my chest
we skinned serpents alive, buried past lovers
covered you in acacia limbs, only to discover
vultures in a kettle, converging in the wake
votives line the passage as we mourn the steps we take
from stars on fish hooks beneath a velvet sky
to steel trap bodies claiming fatal hearts and minds.
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10. |
Axeman Of New Orleans
03:38
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in fact or realm of fancy
the axeman from the hottest hell
I’ve arrived in New Orleans
to cast my demon spell
invisible like ether, I’ll slay inside the night
a fallen brother angel for my majesty’s delight
in my infinite mercy I present this proposition
rile me or appease me, it’s your decision
you can look but you won’t know who I am
knowing is a wrath too much for mortal man
I am the axeman, axeman of New Orleans
on to my next victim not blue or improvised
besmear your blood and brains so smooth and recognized
across the walls and that room that you kept
on virgin Mary who stood watch as you slept
it was time to clean off the slick southern black hand
complicate the big easy, taking putrid souls back
to hell with me by straight razor or axe
like the blood I’ve left behind my legacy will last.
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11. |
The Silver Rope
05:31
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dislodge the hands that hold the reigns
replaced with those that tend the manes
tender and calloused as they’re worn
brush the dirt along the crease
feeling your way down the seams
the threads catch slow like thorns
the silver rope stretched down the slope
the silver rope keeps stretching down the slope
here upon the cayenne ground
purpose distorted as we shift hoofbound
as this weight is not our own
moving on we discard the packs
that were forced upon our backs
find reflection in sun bleached bone
the silver rope stretched down the slope
the silver rope keeps stretching down the slope
until it breaks, until it breaks
reeling in as we cross the bridge
shaded faces stare along the ridge
defying our will to pass
what was used to keep us bound
is what I watch you hang from now
the silver fading down to black.
until it breaks, until its cut
until its over, until its enough
no more slack for the silver rope.
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12. |
An Ode To Texas
04:10
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she took the last train to Texas
for her friend had taken ill
she left a piece of her necklace
an ode to return like a razorbill
stumbling through the dusk and dawn
so long, so long, so long, so long
a solitary crow in the street
scraping sustenance from trash
do stomach pangs keep it from sleep
when it fears that it won’t last
I hear the horns in the harbor
warning ships of cloaked terrain
her heart was never moored here
stretching out across the arid plains
bowed beneath the shower’s stream
I recall the hurried plans
but no piece of her belongs here
she’s scattered in the flatlands.
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