1.Slow Pulse Boy
Somewhere the blast furnace explodes
Plumes of amber in the night sky
Each explosion bounces
From horizon to horizon
From horizon... to horizon
And for a while, the slow pulse boy
Stood by the window
And let the fire sink into his skin
Again all was still
But for the empty tin
Rolling up and down a gutter
On the breeze
Then we were standing very close
I could live in the space
Between his heartbeats
Outside the blast furnace errupts again
And dark red rivers
Filled our veins with frenzy
We could tear up the floors
And find all the things we'd ever lost
And the fire burns in our jack boots
So we chase the explosions
From horizon to horizon
Wrap ourselves around the distance
For as long as we can hold
Somewhere a girl is singing
There is calm in the air
But there is greater calm than I can bear
Tomorrow the sun shines
2.Maps In Her Wrists And Arms
In the tent of powder and lace
Vultures pick at a carcass that feeds by hand
Longing to decay
Waits to hear the sound
Of their wings slowly heave as they fly away
Some will stay for days
There's maps in her wrists and arms
And the dust lies like snow around the bed
Glowing white, a sculpture of bone
Or a jewel like a crumpled, distorted moon
Shivers in her mind
If she moves too near
It shatters so quickly, leaves nothing behind
The old lady sighs
Sometimes when she lifts her eyes
The room has filled with flowing sheets of silk
There's maps in her wrists and arms
And the morphine surges terror bread and bliss
In the tent of powder and lace
She can hear some violins, watches the strings
Threading through the room
3.Vincent Craine
It was late afternoon
She sat watching never come to Vincent Crane
Under the wet weather swollen door
Never came
She pressed her knee up
Underneath the wooden table
As in her midriff
Dread flutters like the thread of love or pain
There was a bowl of fruit
Shrinking on the table by a rusty spoon
Over the mist weary distant hills
Never came
Through piles of wrecked cars
From the stagnant pools of water
From the abattoir flys
That swarm leech and crawl in Clamour Lane
She walked towards the door
Pushed it open and stood behind Vincent Crane
He leaned back and locked his arms around her
Thin awkward legs
They watched the sunlight
Slide in cold squares across the walls
4.Jack
Jack went out one stormy day
To see where his feet would go
They took him from his sleeping town
Across land both high and low
They took him through the velvet streets
Where men walked on their toes
And down the slopes
Where bottled hell
And blind men lie in rows
Jack walked through the treacle swamps
And crossed the salt dry plains
He passed the house where tall, thin dogs
Pulled on their iron chains
He heard the songs of seed germ girls
Who warmed the frozen fields
And as Jack walked
He felt the corn
Push up his tired heels
He saw the heathens' heather hills
He watched a boiling sea
He met a man with wooden hands
Carved from an old fruit tree
The old man said he dreamt at night
Of blossom roots and knives
And that night when
Jack went to sleep
He dreamt of damson pies
Jack walked out one stormy day
To see where his feet would go
They took him north, they took him east
But never took him home
5.Headless Clay Woman
Under a million scattered stars
From rippled earth that's cracked and sleeping
Under the frozen static stars
The headless clay woman's
Shimmering body stands
And the frost that locks her nakedness
Melts away
Through air that's crystal black ink shadows
As sharp as the thickest thorn and the ice
She moves painless, slow and flowing
Across the wild and trembling path
And the headless clay woman's
Motionless beauty shines
Restless stars reflect in wet red streams
Across her back
Her bare feet step over the split stones
Past the water pump and the pail
Round and round the paint flaking empty house
And past the glass warped window
And the headless clay woman
She stands half up and half down the stairs
She cannot see the bottom
And she cannot see the top
A million stars are shining
A million stars...
As she lies back down
In the frozen warped world
6.Gone.... Like The Swallows
Balancing on the wind
Leaning on the cliff edge wind, in limbo
He watches sand running through the fingers
of his left hand into the palm of his right
He sees someone walking in a hot dry wasteland
Young, hesitant steps
Recognised her crooked fringe and narrow eyes
Threadbare, summer patterned, dirty cotton flowered dress
Scratched ankles and nail bitten hands
Wanted to touch her cool brown hair
But she was gone...
And his old tired face was as still as ever
An aeroplane hummed high up in the sky
Way up above the clouds
A green teapot, a pair of boots
A broken pocket, watch and chain
A born dead baby pig
Lying, pure white... bloodless
Soft and smooth as a gloved lady's hand
A spinning wheel, a bill hook
An umbrella, empty bottles, a tin bath
A hat stand and a slate grey pill box hat
Sailed past his grabbing hands
And were gone... like the swallows
Stuttered words, stuttered words
Voices asking questions he cannot hear
Come and find us
Step back or you'll fall
But the aeroplane is humming so loud now
Trying to cling to the summer cotton
Light threadbare patterned sleeveless
Flowered dirty carnation sunflower
Sweatstained primrose threadbare
Dirty disappearing decaying flowered
Fading cotton forgotten fucking summer dress
But it was gone...
Gone like the swallows
7.Virus Meadow
Rattled chime, slow ringing echo
Roll around in virus meadow
Suck enchanted nightshade twine
Hear the bells beneath us chime
Sinking sermon, priest head murmurs
Holy words across the meadows
Kissed the plagues' black rolling hand
Through his lips the virus sang
And the rooks, they seemed to follow him
Wherever he goes
Flapping in the flat sky
Shrieking in the spire
Hanging from the lead sky
Dangling from the sun
The rooks, they seemed to follow him
Wherever he goes
Nodding thistle, english sun dew
Swansneck woman, child-bed meadow
Aching shoulders sink and grow
As the bells from ditches toll
And the smeared skin wrapped limbs
Of the night brothers
Struggling.... crawling
Through the empty crack of morning
Of the night brothers...
Of the night brothers....
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