1. |
The Cleft Serpent
05:36
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I’ve lived this life many times before with you
the pain I’ll inescapably summon
waiting in the void, I dream of you
I’m dust, I’m debris, I’m destruction
dust, decay, I’m destruction
don’t let me hold you, don’t you see that I always drop you, my love
you thought I was docile, that’s just the millennia of fatigue
The Cleft Serpent, at your service
Surveying the battlefield, I just walk away
you’re dying in the dust, eyes on the wheel of the milky way
I break him, I break him, you humans are too fragile
you thought you could trust me, you really shouldn’t trust me
you thought you could trust me, you really shouldn’t trust me
I know the pain I’m fated to inflict
I know the pain I’m fated to inflict
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2. |
The Trickster
05:23
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Like two snakes basking in the setting sun
we watch the birds ride the currents where the hills crash down to the sea
shivering, he says, “You’re as cold as ice, check it and see.”
his wry smile flickers elegantly
and I was captured some lifetimes ago
this trickster has a trick in store, as he plunges the knife
Must I lose you?
another search for perfection
next life tragic, next life tragic, always tragedy
plunging, wings almost touch the sea
“Snakey, who you talkin’ to?” he chokes, coughing up blood
no more tricks, stay with me
this trickster plunges the knife, takes his own life
love, he’s willing to sacrifice
our love, he’s willing to sacrifice
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3. |
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Oh, so you call these feelings?
I don’t understand them, I don’t know what to do with them
I sold my soul to some serpent, who went slithering by
I think I lost a bet in a past life, that wasn’t a pleasant way to die
In the dark, I think we did some bad things
those memories go off like bombs, my heart he wanted to steal
the way he looks at me, I don’t like the feelings he feels
he’s neither heroic nor pure, but yes! he returns for me
You’re a turd in a temple, a shit on a shoe
a spiritual refuge for me is a laugh-riot for you
well at least we’re not strangling each other, I’ll take a laugh any day,
mmmmmmmmm!
a refuge for two tricksters, two punks pushing the world away
Hid away in this hidden villa
feelings, I don’t want to feel
the strategy comes undone
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4. |
Ares & Hermes
05:50
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Hermes held aloft with my hand ‘round his throat
above the blood-stained battle
my helmet crested with plumes
My serpent-string song drives the men on
rallied by war’s dreadful roar
I’m strengthened by their savagery
Hermes held with my sword to his throat
I’ve conceived new methods of carnage
malevolence, wrath, relentlessness
He’s so thin, he’s hardly there at all
destroy the one who once saved me
in order to avoid — to avoid
Hermes plummets from my grasp
I didn’t try to stop myself
fear rallied my anger, my self-importance
On my knees search among the piles
of bodies
did I imagine you?
did I imagine you?
I want you to be real
to wash away my pain
to wash away this shame
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5. |
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“With these hands, I reach for the stars, the stars above you”
another lifetime, another battlefield, “I reach to touch the milky way above you”
If only I hadn’t been too late, if only, if only, if only I’d arrived
“I lost my friends there, I hope we go somewhere when we die,
what are we if not eternal?”
“Why do we fight, and love and die?
on my back in the dust with my eyes on the wheel of the milky way”
So the infinite can know itself, we are awake for the infinite to know itself
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6. |
So Tired Of Our History
07:09
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Eternity, it’s such a damn long time
a long time for regretting
civilizations come and go
but he doesn’t see me comin’ — no, he doesn’t see me comin’
so tired of our history
so tired of our history
If it’s all just another story
if it’s all just repetition
if it’s all just a chance to inflict pain
then I’d really like to stop playin’ the game
I’d really like to get out of this deal
break this cycle
replay that hand I’d win the bet
Hey, who do I talk with to get my check?
Maybe I’ll awaken — maybe I’ll make my escape
so tired of our history
so tired of our history
if I let ya go do ya think I’d be free?
if I let ya go do ya think I’d break free?
What if death is not defeat? not the ultimate failure
what if death just comes and goes?
but he doesn’t see me comin’ — no, he doesn’t see me comin’
spin the wheel once more — another story begins
I try to push it away
so tired of our history
so tired of our history
Lift my head from the earth
shake the years from my eyes
I look past the broken wreckage
I find you there in the bulrushes
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7. |
The Matchmaker
04:15
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Frozen in anticipation
stagnation annihilation
I shake him he doesn’t awaken
this doesn’t feel like me
it doesn’t seem to be
not the choices I would have made
Times Square, March two-thousand and eight
a swirl of formless faces
smiling, laughing, screaming
before you know it, you’ve lit the match
burned it all down
or murdered a million others
we could justify anything
Humans find it hard
to sit idly by
always have to do things
atrocities to pass the time
so as not to confront the anxiety of our ambivalence
so as not to confront the anxiety of uncertainty
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8. |
I'm The One Who Loses
03:26
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We gotta get out of sight, duck into a fluorescent underground parking garage
he’s pulling at door handles, oh cute he thinks we can escape
I’m the one who loses, I’m the one who loses
“You’re the one who lost it,” he shouts. “Where’d you stash that getaway car?”
too entranced to move, too pained to run
burst through sliding doors, dirty faces and cracked floors
red and blue flashes, he takes my weight dragging him down
shouting voices, people rushing, needles, alarms
my bloody shirt, bullet holes and dying red roses
crumpled on the cement, bright lights, dirty floors
I said you shouldn’t trust me, I said you shouldn’t trust me
I’m the one who loses, I’m the one who loses
his eyes get wide, he finally recognizes
“Snakey, don’t leave me, I can’t live without you”
my death arrives to devour my fading warmth
he rides the currents over my collapse
I’m the one who loses, I’m the one who loses
fragile tender moments with so much nothingness around them
your face fills every thought, as I’m dragged protesting to the void
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Projekt Records Portland, Oregon
$7.99 CD Sale: www.projekt.com/sale (links back to pages here @ bandcamp)
Projekt is
America's premier independent label specializing in passionately intense introspective music in the ambient, electronic, ethereal & darkwave genres. 40-year-old Projekt continues to nurture the careers of its select roster of artists.
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