1. |
The Crimson Bride
05:11
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1. The Crimson Bride
riding away through the dark,
i saw you believe in yourself, just a spark.
i felt ev’ry hoofbeat between
you with yr horsepower’d handful of light, through the steam.
shivering cold,
curving through the town,
holding the moonlight
up to your cheek...
like a rumor of the crimson bride
hiding in the jimson weed,
potions of poison in both of her hands:
one for the woman, and two for the man.
do you believe
she’d given up tryin
to reckon with the loss
and wrestle the rage,
just to end up unseen?
shake those invisible bones
leaning your body towards a home.
tuning your voice to the stars
turnin’ away from the lights of the evening cars:
arriving from the town,
and settling down
into the night...
the engines as cool as their dreams
hiding with the crimson bride,
as broken machines, no gears in their minds.
drifting away in tendrils of steam.
do you believe
they’ve given up crying,
just like you and me
and wrestle the rage
with tears in their eyes
that end up unseen?
thick is the air that we breathe,
stuck between the layers of sunlight and seeds.
it hasn’t rained here in hours.
the summer’s been arranging the light into leaves, and then flowers
‘till they fall down
steady as the rain
onto the eaves
all over town
where we’ve seen the crimson bride
dragging her veil of night, bleeding from the sun
daylight, feedin’ it to the moon:
o, what a scene.
we cheered her on
for giving us time
to reckon with the loss,
as she wandered around drunk,
dragging behind
ribbons of our dreams.
we’ve seen the crimson bride.
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2. |
Livin' In The Graveyard
04:41
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2. Livin’ In the Graveyard
after a speech by Winona LaDuke at the University of Oregon following the 2016 presidential election
Livin’ in the graveyard, carvin’ these
caves into the icebergs, faraway
time inside a cell phone, spellin’ out
only all the nice words. Every day,
sleepin’ in the end-times, hit the snooze-
button till it’s broken, & all the while
dreamin’ of the buildings, thousands of
windows bust open, and from inside…
Y’all don’t know what to do with the shame of this story
but paint red, white and blue the chains of hissstory,
and argue all day through, who is and who isn’t,
but-you built my brother’s school in the shape of a prison.
...while you were
diggin’ in the graveyard, buryin’
tomahawks and hatchets, smile enough
to charge it on the paycard, carryin’
parking lots of fat debt… pilin’ up
religions of the empire, carving our
faces into the mountains, hopin’ we can
dry-erase entire peoples but they
come back ‘round when… we’re all
Livin’ in the graveyard, try’na find
where all this hate began, & what the hell
would it even mean for us to try and make
“america” “great” “again”?… what about the
millions of buffalo, & what about
the skies dark with birdwings, billions of
names we’ll never know, & all the voices
that we never heard sing? in the land of the free…
I don’t know how you feel proud of this country.
You scream “red, white and blue!” so loud and so hungry.
Not like i want to just make y’all feel crappy,
But don’t sit there and preach that the slaves were all happy.
Now you’re lyin’ in the deathbed, wondering
What about the grandkids, this is such a
poisonous world for them, even though the
heartbeat of the land is…
underneath an avalanche of hashtags, & underneath
the ashes are the embers, & underneath
an island made of trashbags, some of the
forgotten ones remember… re-member, re-member:
I can see why we feel shamed by this story.
Melt red, white and free the chains of hissstory.
I don’t know how you might could come to believe it,
but concrete crumbles too when you grow from beneath it.
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3. |
Coming Of Age
07:27
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3. Coming Of Age
i don’t know my heart from a hole in the ground.
said that i was in love, but i was bluffin’.
but thin on the wind what’s that faint beating sound?
i asked the old man, he said nothin’. he said:
“deep in a hole in the ground,
a boy just like you, well his body was found.
you’re coming of age in a strange kinda town.”
i don’t know my mind from a canyon in the sea
i thought that i did in my twenties
you ask the old man how much he threw away:
if you asked him today, he’d say plenty.
he’d say: “deep in a canyon in the sea,
new york city trash from the last two centuries.
now you’re coming of age in the land of the free.”
free to join the army, or the office, or the jail:
choose your industrial complex.
you said that you read of some other kind of trail,
but you ask’d the old man, he said nonsense.
he said: “deep in a Congolese mine,
i found the one missing piece to your cell phone’s design.
you’re coming of age in a strange kinda time.”
the ocean will rise and she’ll swallow up the land.
that won’t be a time for the keepin’.
stare at your screen all night long while you can.
you could ask the old man, but he’s sleepin.
he’s sleeping deep in a hole in the ice.
where the speed of your getaway car won’t suffice.
you’re coming of age at a mighty high price
it was not the blue of the sky or the sea,
it was blue as the tears that you’re cryin:
that was the bird that flew down next to me.
i tried to show the old man, but he’s dyin.
now deep in the marrow of your bones
there lives a liquid old soul and she knows this is home.
you’re coming of age, & maybe
tremblin with rage, on some
neon-lit stage, but you sure ain’t alone.
na cuz i found my heart in a hole in the ground.
it could have been a canyon or a quarry.
i miss the old man now that he ain’t around.
he came in a dream and said sorry. he said:
“deep in a hole in the sky,
i can finally see you through a new kind of eye.
now ain’t no one of age
in our strange kind of cage,
and it’s definitely too late,
but not too late to try.”
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4. |
Every Body Knows
04:38
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see brutality we seen before
five centuries, even older
don’t want to fight the empire’s war
i don’t want to be a quiet soldier this time
not gonna swallow my rage and stand around
not while they’re pressin his face into the ground
you try to be neutral on this moving train
while the motion sickness screws up yr brain
and it shows
every body knows [2x]
some bodies sayin “i can’t breathe”
while some bodies on the other side of town
in the shade of the family tree:
blood on the leaves, blood on the roots, way down
whisperin: “i don’t want no body mad at me”
nah, you’d rather wallow in shame and apathy.
tell it to the newborn babe, cryin,
placed in the beartrap jaws of american irons
as they close
every body knows [2x]
hearin’ platitudes we hear every time:
that white noise, k-k-kodes of silence.
your body’s gonna walk that line:
the thin blue thread stitchin’ laws into violence.
O, my god, don’t you feel that fear and trembling?
oh and daddy don’t don’t you hear that rumbling?
coming from the deep-down place where the body heals,
the one that i can see in your face as you pretend not to feel
but it just grows…
every body knows [2x]
i don’t want your body to be let down, be let down [6x]
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5. |
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5. House of Waves (When You Roar)
keeping time with the ocean
breathing inside the planet
line of birds tore it open
sweeping wide your horizon
we are all smaller than it [3x]
how do you inhabit the animal home,
animal indeed, but who is enough,
animal alone, unable to feed,
how do you inhabit the animal when you
call through the door.
turn that rusty knob a little more.
time goes back to normal when you roar.
keeping time with the virus
breeding all across the planet
galaxies deep inside us
we are all smaller than it
we are all smaller than it [3x]
how do you inhabit the animal home, /
animal indeed, but what is enough, /
animal alone, unable to feed, /
how do you inhabit the animal when you
fall through the floor
bring back some sand from the other shore
ocean freezes over when you roar
keeping time with the tiny
glow inside every hand, its
virus spreads through the dark with
threads of fire from the planet
we are all smaller than it [3x]
keeping time with the lovers
writhing inside the spirit
waves and sand rolling over
twinned in star-shiny sockets
how do you inhabit the animal home,
animal indeed, but where is enough,
animal alone, unable to feed,
how do you inhabit the animal with your
lips of moon, shared erosion ( call… )
shaping shoreline division ( to the shore )
breaking land from the ocean ( breaking like sand )
breathing time on the planet ( over the roar )
love is spread through the dark with
threads of fire from the planet
rising red from the ocean
we are all smaller than it
time was never normal, all these
waves around the chimney, singing
“we are time, we are time, we are time…”
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6. |
Darling
02:58
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6. Darling
double
vision in the water
inside the womb
single
trouble on the staircase
up to your room
pounding
on the darkest hallways
stumble through your fever dream
but you don’t have to fear
darling
know i love you always
everyone was waiting for
your face to appear
twin hearts
fill the golden window
with a flickering feel
skin breaks
on the weave of moonbeams
cold air and steel
sounding
through the widest canyon
“aren’t you coming with me?”
one and only cry
“darling”
echoes my companion
“i am with you always, dear
even though i die”
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7. |
Lightning Underneath
07:51
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11. Lightning Underneath
all these constellation calls
all this reachin star to star
now that’s how far it feels:
really fuckin’ far
really fuckin’ far
your planetary eyes
i saw ’em rollin in your sleep
then i kissed those lids goodbye:
lightnin’ underneath
lightnin’ underneath
the angels’ dream of symmetry
it’s stretch’d thin between him & me
i wish the clouds could sift it into snow
but as above, my love: not so below
now summer just was here
it seems the sun has hardly past
the days melt into years
really fuckin’ fast
really fuckin’ fast
hurdling away (star bodies fade)
hardly time to hold (our bodies, babe)
but a person cannot pray
cursin’ in the cold void
cursin’ in the cold
so i’m flyin my kite with a skeleton key
and i’m trying to strike down my jealousy
i wish the clouds could sift it into snow
but as above, my love, not so below
i wanna fly right through your storm (before it’s over)
like river veins through a leaf (to be together)
skin on skin is warm
lightnin’ underneath
lightnin’ underneath
now we hold it up to sip (star bodies flow)
this river cupped in our hands (our bodies know)
there’s love in every drip
and we’re thirsty as the sand
thirsty as the sand
i could summon wings of steel
so easily, and cheap
and i’d never have to feel
the lightnin’ underneath
lightnin’ underneath
there’s stories bleedin’ in between
all the angel’s broken teeth
after wrestling with the dream
lightnin underneath
there’s lightnin underneath
the feathers & steel & whatever-else changed
when the angels’ dreams got rearranged
i wish the clouds could sift it all into snow
but as above, my love: not so below
as above, my love: not so below
from the fractals in yr mind (our bodies fade)
to the freckles on yr cheeks (star bodies, babe)
our precious little time
has lightnin underneath
lightnin underneath
lightnin underneath
lightnin underneath
lightnin underneath
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Isaac Fosl-van Wyke Louisville, Kentucky
Isaac Fosl-van Wyke is a songwriter and puppeteer based out of Louisville, KY.
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