Lyrics

　　# Larkspur And Lazarus
　　the empty streets
　　the songs of twilight
　　the clouds at rest
　　the churchbells chiming
　　a scarecrow shudders
　　and some birds tremble
　　i looked at you and saw it's time
　　
　　the faded flowers
　　the faded pictures
　　of faded lives
　　your body waiting
　　and unfulfilled
　　with no regrets
　　and empty heart
　　and head in hands
　　i heard them say today it's time
　　
　　the sunset heavy
　　on mother mountain
　　the cattle lowing
　　the cattle dreaming
　　the endless rain
　　in haunted airs
　　your loss of hope
　　we were shown
　　we were shown it's only time
　　
　　the smell of rain
　　the twilight leaning
　　against your lips
　　waterwheels turning
　　the forests brooding
　　you took my hand
　　and pointed full of pain
　　that fishes dying
　　you saw the sign that this was time
　　
　　i waited years for you
　　or so it seemed
　　and stumbled through your world
　　praying for just one kiss
　　to stop my fall from grace
　　and shelter in your palm
　　you gave me everything
　　both lock and key
　　the oilclouds see it's only time
　　
　　if i could have one wish
　　as in the fairytales
　　i would unmake my past
　　and rise like Lazarus
　　and stand in sunlight
　　and banish all the dark
　　that locked my face away
　　and say to you again
　　oh that
　　that was only time
　　
　　so willow weep not for me
　　and oak bend not for me
　　though others died for us
　　and in our place
　　though in the secret heart
　　raw wound, raw source of all
　　i heard the news today
　　whispered in the dark
　　at last
　　at last we know it's time
　　
　　i knew at last it's only time
　　i'll come in glory
　　
　　end of story
　　
　　#A Gothic Love Song
　　
　　i'm clicking your fingers for a gothic twilight
　　that actually existed just in your head
　　your fingernails painted black or bloodred
　　i forget
　　and your fake-leather volumes jabbering on hell
　　manifest decadence was what you hoped to exhale
　　your eyes tried so hard to glitter
　　
　　a star-snuffing black so you opened your books
　　and you opened your legs and so opened your heart
　　and let in the badness you claimed as your friend
　　
　　with un-angels hovering like flies around the orchard
　　that had covered your soul their empire increasing
　　and your country deserted by your self
　　
　　the bells of st. mary call us to remember that life is with end
　　and the gestures can kill us moreover destroy
　　and there is one judgment only
　　your letters came daily in french or in german
　　but they meant to me nothing i caught the slow chords
　　and dry ice fogging your mind
　　
　　i see all too clearly now why you could be discarded
　　and though i could pray for you i probably shan't
　　having had my cup filled up with your lies and your make-up
　　
　　you were nothing thinking you're something
　　
　　and nonetheless i still write this gothic love song
　　a sign to myself and the memory of my past
　　i still write this gothic love song
　　a sign to myself and the memory of my past
　　and a way to shut out your face
　　
　　#The Signs In The Stars
　　
　　i saw the back of the stars
　　tremble and fall
　　while seahorses played
　　on the slope of your breast
　　i saw a hundred angels
　　rush to the ground
　　they were giving you garlands
　　and giving you crowns
　　the flowers are everywhere
　　Christ glorious entwined
　　the tip of the moon
　　and the sun as it shines
　　and the roots as they burrow
　　and tunnel through earth
　　and the birds as they soar on their wings
　　i heard them whisper your name
　　and i remember you there
　　
　　and the turtle-doves hiding
　　as your eyes roared with light
　　and i remember your smile
　　so wide and so red
　　whilst the snowflakes covered
　　your hair with their seals
　　and i remember our bliss
　　as we gazed at the wall
　　and i remember you there
　　i remember you there
　　with your mocking bird hair
　　
　　some years ago
　　we had sat down and wept
　　with the sea in our ears
　　and seven cats on our laps
　　whilst the books gathered dust
　　unread and untrue
　　and you flicked through the letters
　　i could not bear to read
　　
　　#Soft Black Stars
　　
　　little children snuggle under soft black stars
　　and if you look into their eyes soft black stars
　　deliver them from the book and the letter and the word
　　and let them read the silence bathed in soft black stars
　　let them trace the raindrops under soft black stars
　　let them follow whispers and scare away the night
　　let them kiss the featherbreath of soft black stars
　　and let them ride their horses licked by the wind and the snow
　　and tip-toe into twilight where we all one day will go
　　caressed with tendrils and with no fear at all
　　their faces shining river gold washed with soft black stars
　　and angels' wings shall soothe their cares
　　and all the birds shall sing at dawn
　　blessed and wet with joy
　　you and i will meet one day
　　under a nightsky lit by soft black stars
　　
　　#Larkspur And Lazarus II
　　
　　when you told me
　　you heard the winds cry
　　and then you told me
　　you felt the seas die
　　and then you showed me
　　the flight of seagulls
　　and whispered gently
　　the party is over
　　then
　　then i knew it was time
　　
　　you looked so tired then
　　bereft of beauty
　　i knew that long ago
　　your heart had stopped
　　but all this beauty
　　but all these shadows
　　as if to say yes
　　to life was pointless
　　and then
　　then i knew it was time
　　
　　in a small park
　　just down from Soho
　　you gestured wildly
　　but meaning nothing
　　and all the fountains
　　shouted surrender
　　and all the trees bowed
　　at my betrayal
　　and then
　　then i knew it was time
　　
　　no words have substance
　　no words are better
　　than when i held you
　　ragdoll defeated
　　so drained of bright light
　　so full of hatred
　　with your soul crumbling
　　parted for flowers
　　i should
　　have you told
　　it's just time
　　and then we looked up
　　urbi et orbi
　　i saw the stars merge
　　over St. Patrick's
　　you said i am finished
　　i am mist and foglight
　　and slipped so sweetly
　　into your grace
　　if only
　　if only it was only time
　　
　　and now it's eight years
　　since i last saw you
　　and all the starlight
　　is now as nothing
　　the letters all burned
　　the kisses complete
　　and all the coupling
　　long forgotten
　　and you long dead
　　damned or forgiven
　　it was no dream
　　
　　#Anti-Christ And Bar Codes
　　antichrist and barcodes
　　in the air that we breathe
　　with a little black box i hide in the sky
　　in the water that trickles in our mouths
　　
　　in the codes that flicker are lives
　　on and off
　　does the carton nights
　　starts to swallow and shiver
　　and to freeze
　　
　　the fish belly up
　　the unborn served up
　　obeying the planets
　　no insense is strong enough
　　to make this life complete
　　
　　alpha and omega
　　the great in the small
　　the butterflies flutter by
　　the foxes stop running
　　the moon
　　as sharp as a sickle
　　and as bright as a pin
　　breathed its heavy sick breath
　　as we fitfully slept
　　and heavily dreamed
　　
　　to awake
　　back into endings
　　and quietly wait
　　for the trains to stop chugging
　　and the clocks to implode
　　
　　his name is under our skin
　　and so by the hair
　　of my chinny chin chin
　　by hook or by crook
　　our necks are in the news
　　
　　#The Signs In The Stars II
　　
　　i had gathered some flowers
　　to lay upon your face
　　though you were not gone
　　from the realm of the quick
　　i saw all the rainclouds
　　being driven on forward
　　by horses long numbered
　　and featureless and free
　　and i wanted to call you a wife
　　though i couldn't stop glancing at the signs
　　
　　and the four heads of men
　　and all that they carried
　　and the four wombs of women
　　and all that they promised
　　and i wanted to write for you
　　songs poems and bibles
　　your face spotted with pearls
　　and hand-cuffed to Christ
　　but i couldn't stop watching the signs
　　i had seen the news
　　that the Trojan beast
　　already and not yet
　　no longer near
　　nor close at hand
　　nor at the door
　　is finally here
　　the great in the small
　　
　　and i couldn't stop watching the signs in the stars
　　
　　
　　#Soft Black Stars II
　　as we stared beyond the windows there
　　over all the gardens
　　that have never been
　　and will never grow again
　　how long
　　how long
　　the shining winking stars
　　
　　the clouds too high
　　so high
　　pointing to some final star
　　the dull face of the sky
　　and the sound of the calling
　　of the distant village bell
　　and all that
　　the sun is not enough for us
　　any longer
　　and her smile
　　though she wears her hat
　　and her cheery rays
　　do not blanket with their glorious glare
　　the burning body
　　with distorted nimbus
　　i see too well
　　just beyond my neighbour's house
　　it does not blank out
　　the last sigh of the soul
　　whilst the night rejoices profound and still
　　at the edge of your street
　　both shadow and destroyer
　　but not alas
　　the comforter
　　
　　#Moonlight, Or Other Stars, Or Other Fields
　　caught when i was still a child
　　by a terrible vision of my Christ
　　and caught in the throat by your signs and tears and goodbyes
　　
　　i picked me up
　　and walked too far
　　with thought of no return
　　and not to see your face again and drowning all my hopes
　　and wishing no longer upon stars
　　
　　believing
　　no longer in moonlight
　　or other dreams or other fields
　　upon all of which we so beautifully play
　　i saw a waste of all
　　
　　and so i put away
　　all talk of death's heads
　　and a little glimpse is a bloodblossomed force
　　and all talk of apocalypse
　　Apocraphon and Apollyon
　　Abaddon
　　all abandoned
　　then i saw in myself the bowl and a gun
　　and the glory that was to come
　　
　　#Judas As Black Moth
　　
　　a car sweeps by with a murdered child
　　a car sweeps by with a violated girl
　　a car sweeps by with its trunk full of death
　　
　　i can't hear the voice
　　i can't see the face
　　
　　#Chewing On Shadows
　　as i have not trusted
　　i have not hoped
　　in the bleak alleyways
　　and the secondhand streets
　　where misery waits
　　and the turn of your hand
　　
　　as i have no believed
　　so i have not seen
　　the uselessness
　　the pettiness
　　and in by the clouds are the sun and the stars
　　by the walls and the rain
　　i shall not come to you for tea
　　as you may come back home with me
　　not believing and not seeing the facts
　　yapping into our face
　　alternate fire
　　alternate smoke
　　i shall not wake
　　at seven or eight
　　as all the hours
　　are now too late
　　with the lead weights motionless
　　i spy with my little eye
　　
　　you and i my love
　　you and i
　　with our backs to each other
　　chewing on shadows
　　dissecting the lights
　　that their brightness might be classified
　　and then immasculated
　　and finally killed