1. MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN UNMARKED GRAVE, 1919

“Through the whole void of night I search,
So dumbly crying out to thee,
But thou art not, and night's vast throne
Becomes an all-stupendous church,
With star-bells knelling unto thee, who in all space am most alone.”


2. TEN WENT UP RIVER

In dinghies and coracles
We shrank upstream
Ten men in the claw of nature
Squid covering the oars, and briars choking the banks
We fell on in silence towards black adventure
We got lost somewhere upriver.


3. WILLOWS AND WHIPPOORWILLS

In a hollow of viridian
I see you
Soft and still as biology
The trees want to grasp at you again
Hung like a golden bell at the heart of a willow
Like a golden bell
There's no life you could offer that would mean anything to me.


4. TOBACCO BEETLE

Praise him
He spreads his porcelain wings
A mile each wide
Taking flight from the right hand of damnation
Mighty tobacco beetle
Destroyer of the ziggurats
Mighty tobacco beetle
Defiler of the pyramids
We're all doomed…
We're doomed.
Praise him…mighty tobacco beetle
Taking flight
Envoy of Satan.


5. LARVAL DOOR

(Instrumental)


6. ...AND IVY WOUND ROUND HIM

(Instrumental)


7. THEM GOLDS AND BRASS

The prairie hag
She sits and waits
Polishing them golds and brass
Winter soon, the grass is saying
She knows that autumn's not long to last
Autumn's not long to last
Polishing them golds and brass, so prepares the witch…
Nothing lasts forever, not even time.


8. PETALS AND BLOODOWLS

Tear off a petal and turn back
Down the road to the house where
I first listened to Fleetwood Mac with you
And all your pairs of shoes – a hundred
Where are they now?
Where are they now?
Tear off a petal and turn back
Down the road you abandoned
When I thought I wasn't coming back
Do you remember summers in my attic room?
Sweating under too many covers
Where are you now?
Where are you now?
I gave you my blood, you gave me yours – where are you now?


9. TEMPORARY ANTENNAE

Every blade of grass
Sings for him alone
Forming a chorus
With all those that drink
The black pollen and from twisted yellow roots
The thousand tiny flowers that wind around his throne
Round his throne
We spend our lives pointed at the sky
We spend our lives as antennae.


10. NONE SHALL DIE

I clutch your hand with my cracked fingers
And laugh
Wish everything was different, wish everything was simple
But it's not. It's not.
That none shall die
Is impossible
I wish I could believe you, wish everything was different
But it's not. It's not.
I wish everything was different.
None shall die.