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lambs (2019 reissue)

  • lambs
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  • Lyrics
    copyright © 2004 philip fogarty
    all rights reserved


    white scratches


    lambs

    in the lee of the shadow you silence
    the voices of dissent
    uncurling like a strand
    and bleeding through your thoughts
    as it slithers off the wall
    to look you in the eye
    you try to make sense
    it’s academic when you know that
    your strength counts for nothing
    it’s only where you stand

    the running the running stop running
    cause it’s only where you stand
    and not where you run
    and so it all begins
    as the gate slowly opens
    and the moments steels upon you
    you anchor yourself to what
    you know you will not break

    and you dig in your fingers and struggle
    to remember what you are
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  • two

    drawn from the ends of what you chewed on
    gently slipping from your hands
    you lay your head
    as closely as you dare
    and calmly watch your wildness
    slowly drain away
    a torn edge above you watches silently
    and no response to what you ask
    you lay your head
    as closely as you dare
    drawn away from something
    you never thought you could resist
    drawn
    drawn
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  • headland



    what's left

    wake alone and trembling a thinness in the air a place never seen before and no way to remember it’ll piece itself together it’ll come in just a moment as you paint the stars in for me in a night that holds no fear we touch the barren places so starved for where we are and i’m wide awake and wondering as i try to feed this shining that lives where i can’t touch though i’m sure i’ve always known you born in the open nothing has a name nothing has a word and everything an unknown calling it’ll piece itself together it’ll come in just a moment as you paint the stars in for me in a night that holds no fear we touch the barren places so starved for where we are in a world where things run motionless with this numbness in my hands a single shard of tear falling through the brightening air
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  • touching land

    sand of exile standing on horizon
    and all the precious creatures in their stalls
    are stirring like it’s time to make their way
    to the shore

    see them walking on the narrow gangway
    clinging on for fear that they might fall
    unsteady steps unused to touching land
    a day old

    torn by belonging
    a slow and long awakening
    unsure of where to step
    and no one there to say

    some of them stand proud and fearless on their feet
    and some of them lie trembling like a fawn
    the weight of living pressing them to earth
    like a squall

    so alone on earth the moment leaves them there
    each of their own natures like a call
    an unknown strand for them to leave behind
    like newborns
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  • thinning



    claws retracted

    i’m writing this to let you know i’m
    insert fill in the
    insert
    as if i didn’t recognise
    as if i didn’t
    touch
    claws retracted
    everything you ever wanted near
    touch
    claws retracted
    everything you ever wanted near
    they’re stuck in permanent extension
    how can i touch how can i
    as if i didn’t recognise as if i didn’t
    fill in the blanks fill in the
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  • snowbrow

    i step gently
    into the light of what i’ve known
    the seasons wash over me
    and so i live
    from day to day
    life
    curling round my ankles
    straining

    ice in a crevice
    bracing against the stone
    i know it’s going somewhere
    this liquid flow
    straining towards something
    a place we’ve never been
    a story to be told
    of where we go
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  • lullaby for the nameless

    in the dark of all things wordless
    with bleeding eyes and mouth
    a song of undying worship
    before the truth
    and so i lay me down
    in the flowers and the thorns
    with a heart of cuts and scratches
    still beating like a song

    and it runs out through your hands
    and the numbness leaves you
    and here where you have found it
    you’ll never let it go
    as the sleep clears from your head
    in its rawness and its sting
    knowing nothing but the present
    and what’s there before you

    weather soaked and torn
    one flower at a time
    to make a ragged bouquet
    from the living and the blind
    there are things of such unbeauty
    that are calling for their own
    bearing all that nature threw them
    to the love they call their lives

    and it runs out through your hands
    and the numbness leaves you
    and here where you have found it
    you’ll never let it go
    as the sleep clears from your head
    in its rawness and its sting
    knowing nothing but the present
    and what’s there before your eyes

    and the darkness still spins rainbows
    cutting channels through the soil
    in a place of dazzling shadows
    full of green and growing things



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