1. |
Absolute Listener
04:52
|
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another thought that
happens to slip away
lost in my wet hair
and clothes that are thick with rain
the granite-eyed faith I had
in spades at a younger age
was missing last night
the last time I heard my name
if you grip my broken arm
with a half hint of a whisper
to what lengths will you take
on my patterns of harm
like an absolute listener
to all missteps I make
but if I thought that from the off
I’d be fluent in every way
I’d be more a fool each day
but light with the flutters of ultrasound
the greyscale flight lines of the heart
pulsing like a gull at sea
I’ll make my peace with glut-uncertainty
as both parent and child
how a life goes – goodness gracious me
I’m at snake now so
...was missing last night
the last time I heard my name
was different last night
the first time I used your name
|
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2. |
Garden Stake
02:14
|
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out of our light
we are laying down
you next to me
I have nothing that you need
with sadness like
a garden stake
at the stem of our family
listen out for me
if you’re frightened I am angry, I’m not
a human needs agony to stop –
please believe me
is it a loving thought at all?
I’m sure I don’t know
to ask if it would have been kinder for you?
|
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3. |
Is Something Up
04:56
|
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but hear me out –
all I mean –
the last thing I was saying was –
some indignity
so hear my verse
let me make it worse
in every way
I despair cos
you know they say about Englishmen
who lie and gerrymander:
the rot from their mouths
falls and coats each finger
of their truant hands,
hands off
cos here
a comic turn is just fool for
neglect of every kind
split a hair and lose tongue
is something funny or
a comic turn is just fool for
neglect of every kind
split a hair and lose tongue
|
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4. |
As Was
04:21
|
|||
a way for you to feel peace –
well can I help hoping?
I know nothing
there is someone in the turn
of the murk
listening
so far from home
I feel so out of luck
but at certain hours
I can feel your love, such love
|
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5. |
Leave A Mark
04:42
|
|||
I’m being asked to fudge the truth
on my work absence form
and my restless hands are wavering
like the light that silhouettes an eclipse
"all this never leaves a mark on me
I’m quite sure!
it never leaves a mark on me"
oh in the hands of he who has
the compassion of a staple gun
I am scared for my family and for everyone
who is deemed expendable
|
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6. |
Garden Stake (Reprise)
01:16
|
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at the front door
you are talking
and picking mint
a garden stake
in the palms of
your living grip
I’d not foreseen this
|
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7. |
||||
morning as a proof
only sleeping
can touch the sides of such tired
leaden lowness
when the walls are thin
it is easy
to flit about from room to room
looking for
a rest from indecision,
can I hold that thought?
hide me in the roof
cross the beams
and I’ll root the patterns of this house
through the flue
oh this is what I knew
in the evenings
the counterpassage of an hour
looking for
a rest from indecision,
can I hold that thought?
cos health
moves as a river
and I find –
with the false likeness
of a straight line,
turning branches into twine
and would I be forgiven
for wanting some
system in place to help relief to come
anything going
cos I feel so numb
|
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8. |
Home Truth
04:25
|
|||
"not a problem mate, not me –"
well spare me the lies of the English, please
blood money built my bathstone streets,
ways to paint the scene
when the bronze is pulled into the Avon
and ministers
label resistance as disgraceful
well this irony knows no bounds,
the river’s sediment is quaking
with murder
as talk radio asks if Britain’s racist then
a white journalist hails new ground
clearly not listening well enough
my opposition marked by silence
sorries are a belated whim
it’s a matter of engaging
|
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9. |
Afterthought
02:36
|
|||
screeching like owls in that house of yours
and now clapping at your windows
and irony is –
as you were making out those laws – a cruel joke
by now it must be fairly obvious
that I have got loved ones whose illnesses
have worsened
as a result of those laws,
clap on
|
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10. |
Next To You
03:55
|
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there’s a story of a nightingale
in the grasp of a hawk
and the weaker bird
sings for mercy,
but that’s not how you and I are told,
thank god
and you’ve beauty of a bird of prey
yet when I feel unworthy
next to you
you grasp me and convince me
we are equals through and through
I am lost without your love –
no, really –
and I’m no songbird
but I can tell a special human
and thank her
|
Paplu London, UK
Music made by, with or loved by Seb Gainsborough (otherwise known as Vessel) and Rakhi Singh.
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