1. |
From the Porch
04:59
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Of all the comforts I could have raised
And soft, sustaining purpose found inlaid
Was not any one
My self, along, contained.
Each proved itself as worthless as
The ground without the rain.
As from the porch I cast an arid gaze,
Receding now the tan-edged desert haze.
One million sun-flecked
Angels retreating to remain
Ever mixed up in my memory
With the ground-sprung shafts of grain.
As with every raising of my scythe,
Down bronzed and arching muscle slips the light
Revealing now the millions I proclaim.
In a quick-decaying plume I gift
The ground I work my pain.
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2. |
Down in the Ravine
04:48
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I am coughing, splitting silence as
The smoke broke when she came.
And I am there again, and it's too hard to explain
How the time stood still, the powder caught
And all the field was flames.
How could I recall your name, your face, you way about
With the sun blocked out
By bullets and by banners
False horizons boldly wave.
In a night of light a mind will create shade.
That's how I too am made.
I am watching as you enter. No, I'm down in the ravine.
And time is split between a muggy barn, a bloody stream.
And they're both as real to me as now and both seem as a dream.
Neither one quite memory: your hand; this patch of ground
Where sunlight now abounds
Fell the bullets, furl the banners
And the stables empty out.
Are those cymbals, tambourines or ringing doubts?
I've no way to find out.
Now I see before me feathers through a haze of gray cigars.
But only get so far 'fore bayonets and nearing stars
Would gift the blood that drifts through lazy rifts
Of ever-nascent scars
From the battle that just was, that is, that's always been
So slow the sun begins
Blazing bullets, burning banners, whipping worlds to foaming rage.
In this assault I joyously engage.
Your face, my feeling, fading away.
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3. |
A Man of Perfect Faith
04:53
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As I gaze upon you there, sun-trodden globe
And wonder on life-bearing favors bestowed
I mind not the days, be they cruel, be they cold.
But if these worry you, I've a hand you could hold.
An unshakeable pillar of faith, here stand I.
I know how to live, care not when I may die.
Each night dream of angels and heavenly light.
If you just lay beside me the same then you might.
As I heave in my scythe, while I seed in the sun
My wise hands are formed by the works they have done.
Each reaping a banquet, those turned away none.
On the dais they'll seat you beside me now on.
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4. |
Barndance
03:50
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Night of ending darkness where the bottom branches glow.
Through my window barndance music and there's light upon the snow.
Hands, ears are covered, warm. Let the moonwinds blow.
Through the rotting slats it calls me, powerless to slow
My feet from treading past the moonlit barrow in the snow.
You are there. You are dancing. You are everything I know.
Raising up a tambourine to strike against the smoke.
Noticing a tendency your collar has to choke.
Lips, cheeks are bellows now. A hundred fires they stoke.
The light before's your every pore, a mirror yet unbroke.
The stable fills with laughter still I've yet to get the joke.
Every line, every color, every prayer of mine invoke.
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5. |
Waking in a Church
04:57
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The light brought me around
As it is naturally bound
And how strange does it sound
That I knew you were there but I knew not how?
A window brightly stained
Brings me to again
Somehow I find your name
In the holes of my bones and it fills my veins.
And save one steeples height,
The odd street still alight,
The town is hid from sight
By the skirmish-swept dust waiting to a light.
We knelt there and took aim
As row by row they came
Somehow they looked the same
Coming out of the cloud as you did that day.
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6. |
Beautiful Nurse
04:53
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Why must he grimace so?
Don't mind it just go on.
Mind the bandage is tight. Mind the lamp through the night.
His hand is cold and strange I hold it tight.
Why do I worry so
When dozens before have floated on
Round the road's clouded hook? Or for their time now mistook?
Yet I've seen this face most every place I look.
Why do I hurry so?
As up towards the altar, row by row.
This one's fever still burns. This one moans as he turns.
With every pew, aghast, anew, I learn.
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King Shrimp Charlotte, North Carolina
King Shrimp is the psych-folk/country solo outlet of multi-instrumentalist (and primary member of The Onesies) Rob Katz. Their debut release, a song cycle titled "Civil War", is out April 15, 2022.
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