Wooden Arms

Burial

Sometimes I sink
Little by little

Without pain
No nor ability to think

And with the dull lethargic consciousness of life
And the presence of black wings furled around my bed at night
Encroaching until the crisis of disease
Restored me suddenly, perfectly, to life

I am yours

So it goes

December

Broken, got it all broken
Hoping, got it all worked out

So, we're in this together
And I hope
We'll come out soon

Vicenarian

Life is simple, life is sweet, if not yet quite complete
My broken drum machine heart beats

Life is simple, life is sweet, if not yet quite complete
Every step you take be it with dancing feet

Life is simple, life is sweet, if not yet quite complete
Your naked skin stuck to leather interiror car seat

Life is simple, life is sweet, if not yet quite complete
Love, Life, Light, such an indominable feat

Sometimes we all talk too loud. 
Lost in our own voices, our lips smack at the sounds
Locked around the bottle chomping at the bit
For just one more
For just for one more sip

And this is just the tip of a
Two ton three hundred and fifty seven foot Iceberg

And this is all it takes
Just the one minute mistake
And this is all it'll be
All it ever was
Just a wine-soaked point of serenity

You were lead footed and loose-tongued
You were dancing on table tops
It's way too much, you're far too young
And there were too many two way mirrors
In everyone's hands
What's left to ruin of our best laid plans
Of Mice and Men you helped me understand
What's left of us - is never enough of us

And this is all it takes
Just the one minute mistake
And this is all it'll be
All it ever was
Just a wine-soaked point of serenity

In Vino Veritas

Tide

This well Tempered Clavier makes clear
What sticks in this clavicle
Oh unknown thought
You are intangible
Oh distraught voice
You are unfathomable
And so it goes
Oh Son of Man
why do you seek
the living amongst the Dead? 
Is it better to die
amongst the living
then to live
amongst the dead
Oh Son of Man
why do you seek
the living amongst the Dead? 
Is it better to die
amongst the living
then to live
amongst the dead
Oh such sensitivity
oh such capacious animosity
were you born this way? 
Or did you choose to be
such an Arsehole. 
Well so much for subtlety
you'll reap what you sow
and so it will be
so the story goes
It never ceases to ebb and flow

Waiting

You breathe out and in
Again and again
Waiting for
The start to finally end. 

Is this all? 
Is this all? 
Is this all? 
Is this all?

Noah

We carved our names into the timbers
And sailed for 40 nights and 40 days. 
Gathered the animals
And with the lion the lamb will lay

It's not a choice we make
We're just born that way

But Lord knows
I wouldn't have it any other way
I wouldn't have it any other way
I wouldn't have it
Any other way.

False Start

So many times I've closed and locked my door
And never left someone behind wanting so much more
12 month on and I'm still waiting for a fall
For it all to fall

But you don't fall

If I fall down
If I fall apart
We were made that way
To fall down from the start
If I fall down
If I fall apart
In our house of cards
You were always the queen of my heart. 
And now I know
All the other times
All the other girls
Were just a False Start.

Trick of the Light

Brick on brick
we build up
To something that isn't there
Fingers don't touch

Oh such joy
Oh tower of Babel
It's all we are and nothing less
If such things persist, so much more exists

Well it's only a trick of the light
That made you believe
But what is left
If you leave
Such faith
So pure
Misconstrued as truth
Is it that it should?
Such faith
So pure
All you would ask
Is it that it should
Is it that it should

It's just a trick of the light

 

ENCRYPTED

You tried to hide yourself away
In all the words you never say

You always had to laugh the last
Far too smart at least by half
For the splintered mast
To which you're lashed

Because the sirens in the night
Have us surrounded
What do I
Do with our history

You, you broke into my heart
Took me apart
And the memory's no help
Can't put myself

(You broke me apart
And I can't put myself)

Together again
Together again
(Oooooooh)

 

You love your independent ways
And all the trouble that you save

To make the journey out alone
The journey back can wait although
The broken code within your bones
Says how can it be so

How can it be so
This just might all end in mystery

Movie Stall

You can’t, forget the sound, 
of his voice by the movie stall
I noticed, if I am the future
I know this, I’m not the best suitor
 

COLE PORTER

The black black waters
Black waters of home
Where rocks bathe treacherous
In the sun

In kindred silence
The forest suffocates the path
Climb darkling chasms
To dawn at last

She falls down the mountain
Down the mountain when she comes
And down down sinking
She pulls the sun

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky

Wish I had something better to say to you
Anything you want to hear?
You keep telling me how nobody ever loves you
I’m loving you right here
You’re telling me everyone lets you down
I wouldn’t ever let you down you know.

And I, I’m terrified, I’ve lost you in twenty thousand streets under the sky
And I, made a mistake and I’m sure you made one too
We shouldn’t let love pass us by like we do

And I, I’m terrified. I’ve lost you in twenty thousand streets under the sky

Restless:

"Down at the bottom of bank street
There's a house, stands up all by itself
With nothing to lean on

You'll find nobody home
cept the leaves the rain the dirt the howling wind
sings a restless song

Stuck in the heart of your homeland
Is a knife, you cannot help but twist
Though you don't know it yet

And right in the eye of the hurricane
There you stood you wept you brought out something pure
and there you buried it
(For anyone to find)

Restless , endless, nameless, deathless, voiceless, deathless, restless restless

Back in the garden of england
They say deep in these hills there is a crown
Which will bloom when it is needed

And though they all think you're unstable
You keep telling everyone the ravens have left the tower
Did you finally lose your patience

Restless , endless, nameless, deathless, voiceless, deathless, restless restless
All these old buildings make us feel like children 

Milk Teeth

If we were mindless and senseless and born
without names
would you still call out for something more
some small refrain
A little piece to tide you through?

Born into a dirth of sound
An inauspicious town
Where such success can become
So suspicious

Can a man not be judged
By the sweat of his own brow
When all is said and done
What else is there to do?

If it’s all so hopeless
then why cry out for something more

Our bodies mortal and finite
never knowing what they’re actually good for

We simper so many simple fools
to pass away these easy days

And when all is said and done
what else is there to do
What else is there to say
when the sun burns down
when the seas dry out
what else is there to do?

You’re milk teeth in an old skull
It’s time to go

Lost in Your Own Home

I watched your arms
like the roadmaps of England
Don’t say that word, don’t say that word
I was talking of fears
I should have heard
But you were speaking without moving
a lip or a line connected
at the seams turned inwards
these folded paper
wet cardboard dreams

I would watch shadows
of childhood demons come to scoop me up
Talon crack, bible black, oyster shell snap
and hoofs clatter on stained carpet
What was left
was weakened knees and a perpetual stutter

I was threadbare and needle deep
And lines of fabric seep into swollen flesh
Left lying on linen I was listless in the evening and restless in the morning
these sweat soaked sheets
an agony left between the pleats
and I fumbled through duvets
cavernous collected cottons to find some relief

And we’ll caw and claw, all night long
Linger let hang each note of the song
sung softly, but never sweetly
this taste is idle upon my tongue
too many fizzy drinks
that incandescent toothbrush balanced delicately on
the bathroom sink

I am lost in my own home.

Brevity

Why can't you speak clearly to me
and say exactly what you mean
you hide your words in polyphonic symphonies
that seem to me to be absurd

and would you take some time
to listen to me , not everything needs to be said
would you take some time
to mull it over, some things are best in your head

Oh brevity
you never quite got the best of me
Oh obscurity
conceal me, please

What can be said in a couple of words
can be mistrued
and I will not be dettered

and if you take your time to think about it
you would say the same you would say the same
These words I choose well I will decide
for what is left of a man but his own mind
And i've made up mine for once in my life
these words are mine, These words are mine.

Oh brevity
you never quite got the best of me
Oh obscurity
conceal me, please