1. |
Thousand Ships
03:39
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sister, we were once wound in indigo
2 cords wrapped around our necks
could i but remember your face
your pressed apricot flesh
strange as a fish (a fish...)
we were born in two eggs, like castor
and pollux in the other egg
by our mom who wrapped her long legs
around a swan that's how you got your face
to launch the ships (the ships..)
that silly man came home with cassandra
she sees me wrapped up in white cloth
but what do i care? (i care...)
sister you know the child i bore
and you know her lambswool hair
so you know how he slit her throat
how he cut it on the stone
to launch the ships (the ships...)
1000 ships
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2. |
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Even when I try hard, I can’t show no control when it comes to you my baby girl
Yes, even when I don’t sing, I’m thinking of a song
Yes, even when I don’t sing, I’m thinking of a song
Yes, even when I don’t sing, I’m thinking of a song
Even when I do well, I cannot get no ground, under my feet baby girl
Yes, even when I don’t call, I’m hearing your response
Yes even when I don’t call, I’m hearing you respond
Yes even even when I don’t call, I’m hearing you respond
Even when I make art, I still cry just as hard, for tunnels you burrowed in my heart
Yes, even when I read late, I know you’re still awake
Yes, even when I read late, I know you’re still awake
Yes, even when I read late, I know you’re still awake
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3. |
All in Green
03:51
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you boiled a cup of cream, put it in a saucepan, turned the flames up high
it boiled and formed a skin, you touched it with your finger, removed it like a slip
you served me tea and marmalade, pome and peel, pome and peel
a black bear in the woods, finds a rotting oak tree, sticks his face inside
his tongue is long and black, in the cloud of golden insects, who sting him 'til he swells
and then his tongue is salmon-fat, inside white pins
pins for teeth, his tongue is salmon fat
you left me like a sweat, you left no residue, no residue
you boil a pot of water, drop a pinch of seasalt, i am a rotten orchid, and i'm feeling sick again
you dressed me all in green, you served my meals, you served my meals, you dressed me all in green, you served my meals, you served my meals
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4. |
Triple Crown
02:58
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you were relieved when you could deliver that man into her hands
she came a long way to eat your liver, but she could mend his clothes
and she could pare his apples, and boil water, and carry his sadness
between her legs, her legs
you had a horse and a silver pail, you birthed the babies and walked to school
you broke your arm when a boy touched you, how embarrassed he must have been
when the ambulance came to take you away, he must have felt it burn up his face, his face
you had your jaw set in iron intention to leave one day
for those wooden fences and the smell of horses, and kentucky bluegrass
and the Triple Crown, the Triple Crown
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5. |
Levanter
03:47
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All these stories that we tell, we know them well
Will be dispelled when the wind comes, to blow my breath away
Figures and configurations, colors, shapes, and constellations
Will dissolve, like they were never there at all
Calms of Capricorn and Cancer, westerlies and levanters laden with dust
Will whisk away these words
When the wind comes through the grass, well I’m not the one to say good bye to
When the wind comes through the grass, well I’m not the one to say good bye to
All this lattice mesh and lace, netting warp and weave
Will unravel like penelope’s shroud
Semiotics codes and signs, rivers, veins, and criss-crossed lines
Will fade away, into the space behind our minds
Give me love and give me room, I’ll take a mare’s nest as my groom
There’s only one to whom I answer, yes you, the levanter
When the wind comes, through the grass well I’m not the one to say goodbye to
When the wind comes, through the grass, well I’m not the one to say goodbye to
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6. |
Call You
03:40
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if I call you, it won't be by your name, because i can't call you, i can't use your name, without it making you strange
without it making you strange
if i call you, it won't be by your name
if i call you, it won't be in a song, because i can't sing to you, i can't sing your song, without it making me long for you, without it making me long for you
if i call you, it won't be in a song
if i know you, it won't be by your face, because I don't know you, not by your face, but by that aching place in me, by that aching place in me
if i know you, it won't be by your face
take me back to you, and don't ever let me leave
don't let me do again what i never have believed in
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7. |
Gold Grass White Cloud
04:00
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I’m a long way down, like a southern town, but I know the sound of my name
Do I surprise you, you don’t recognize me, well I recognize you
because you're mine, and in time, you will shine on me
And I will bleed, if it’s what you need, to come on home to me
Where you won’t feel that pain anymore
No you won’t feel that pain anymore
You are swollen, you are engorged,
You are swollen with my blood
I am a soft mesh, I’m tenderness
I am the hand inside the glove
And I’m more than you hope for,
And you are encased in me
I’m a white cloud, I am gold grass
And I’m calling you home to me
Where you won’t feel that pain anymore
No you won’t feel that pain anymore
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8. |
Elektra
04:36
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Oh my brother, you have to help me
I found you at my father’s grave
A lock of hair told me you were there
A lock of hair I’d recognize anywhere
Father’s ghost is hanging round the house
And mother’s nerves have gone to shit
I pour my wine, and pour my scented oil
Watch them seep into the soil
Iphigenia, you must remember
She of the warm doe eyes and curls
She let me suck her thumb, when we were babes
My only comfort in this world
And our father, so handsome in his robe
There is no sense that I can make
How could her cut her white tender throat
all so his armies could set sail?
Eeeh eeeeh
Our mother, brutal as a man,
Kisses that traitor right in front of me
I am not welcome, they’re making love
While the blood’s still under their nails
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Holly Mae and the Painted Room Berlin, Germany
The Painted Room is an art-folk entity of varying membership that existed in from 2006 to 2012. Members have included Holly Mae Haddock, Sara Kwon, Kathy Kwon, Molly Morgan, Sarah Morris, Mary Fraser, Mike Billmire, Serge Van der Voo, Merilee Philips, Sami Jo Buffington, Ken Lee, Jaime Fordyce & others ... more
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