Into Your Lungs

get your things we’re leaving when the morning birds are singing we’re sailing

cause its time to go what’s to come only fate can show see her move like a toreador wielding her cloak and sword

but i believe if we run into red full speed then there isn’t a blade beneath keen enough to pierce our skins cause we won’t let it in (in)

i’ve carried this preconceived false belief that secretly everybody’s fooling me just acting sweet

but i’m not taking it anymore cause the only thing that i ever learn is when trusting a stranger your trust will be returned (return it)

so we’re taking the boat tonight we’re taking our aging lives and we’re waving a new goodbye our arms open wide (wide and wide-eyed)

i’ve been asleep for a long, long time blond hair to brown and brown to white my mom is buried beside my dad but i was asleep for all of that

i shut my eyes for a moment’s rest cause i get so tired but what things transpired while my body slept? and beset my mind?

the schools that we went to have all been closed and all of my teachers are dead i suppose the songs that we sung have all gone quiet what happens below as we sleep at night?

the river’s up, the reeds are caught halfway across what never was the water rose and swept in slow when the reeds awoke they were half below

don’t you swing like a child, in a tree, on a tire, in 85? there’s an arc that your feet will ride on the way between hate and that sunday fire

you look so serious oh, you look so serious the night is serving us but you look so serious

and this could be our reward this could be it

this simple friday night where you’re loosening your tie but there’s a tightness in your eyes

you look so serious why do you look so serious? the night is serving us and we’re deserving it

and this could be our reward this could be it (this could be all we’re owed) (all we’re owed, all we’re getting)

cause if we swing like a child then we’re always colliding this time of night but our arcs, they could align (we could align! we could align!) and over gravity up comes this kicking child this kicking child

are you a wolf, warm in your pinstripes? is your pen a bootknife, drawing red and dollar green? (two colours for everything)

look how the teeth gnash look how they smile it’s some kind of witchcraft that keeps us laughing all the time

we did our jobs so quick and calm wasted no love

have i been drinking? my feet are kicking like someone’s pushing this institution down my throat (and i’m going to choke!) is this a living, this steady gunning? it’s got a rhythm, sure, a hemiola to my pulse (a messy rush!)

we did our jobs so quick and calm wasted no blood

ambition, give me wings ambition, break my legs she swims inside my head was planted in my skin (and i can’t forgive!)

have i been driving? i see the lines bend but i’ve not been steering and i keep on veering to the right (to those blissful lies!) when did they reach me, while i was sleeping? when did they rein me? interrogate my better sense (with their fucking rent!) and all my teachers, those dusty pilgrims those plucky speakers are all just victims of a lie (that they can’t deny!)

we did our jobs so quick and calm wasted our lungs

i was starved white desert ground

i was dry a hungry child

i lived my life, dotted ‘i’s knotted fingers toed the line

then your open arms

i’ve been crying all of my life i guess and all my smiles were just cringing and tired now your sleeves are dryin my eyes i find these bleary sights are cuff polished and bright i’ve been crying all of my life but here entwined in sinew and fire

you bright sun you darkest dirt hardest paradox i ever learned you’re tireless and i tire quick it’s the easy death of reason within my chest

you bright sun you darkest dirt hardest cryer i ever heard you cry out your orders you cry out your pain and every letter’s followed like its sacrosanct

i’m at the mercy of an idiot tyrant king i jump high! talk loud! and listen? i’m always listening! cause he built his throne from my bones and skin

i love, i hate, i hate to live this way a dog, a slave, we do what our deity dictates

and i just want someone to lean on i just want someone to lean on me.

were you born in water, a fish so cold? were you born in autumn, as the river froze? cause you shut up and you’re shut in and i know that you’ve got your reasons but even still, listen: honey, let your red heart show

won’t you? won’t you? can’t you?

were you born a closed book, full of secret lines? (and bound so tight) or did you learn to lock it, as not to break your spine? (oh! you were bound so tight) cause you shut up and you’re all shut inside and i wanted to get you smiling and maybe once in awhile you could try and maybe let your red heart show

come on

won’t you let your red heart show? won’t you let your red heart show? don’t you let your red heart go cold don’t you let your red heart go cold we were given so much and we let it go we were given so much and we’re getting old we were promised so much but we let it go we were promised so much and it’s going i know but you look so good when you’re laughing you know yeah you know you look so good when you let it show honey you look so good when you’re laughing

(oh!)

you you and i made a pact a deal that as we lay dying we’d think about eachother then and smile as we’re taken in

i i listened like a little child to the story of your earthbound pilot he plummeted so violent a parachute not opening and rushing to oblivion he broke into that knowing grin

i i think about that a lot cause a lot is what i’ve not got and a smile is what i least expect in the clutches of this darkness

you you i was surprised to hear your birdsong velvet in my ear the phone broke its silent stint i pulled the cord and i needed it you billowed like a bowl of silk and slowed me from my ruining

i raised my head from the riverbed and i tasted the air i built my home of oak and stone and i feasted on the animals and earth i raised my kids in modern beds and i taught them to take what’s theirs i built this town on god and doubt and science (an economy of fear) i drained the pond and the woods beyond for dinner, and the river for a song the more i’ve got the more i want. i’m blinded.but i’m waking up!

tired eyes, open wide blossom iris into lily white tired eyes, open wide salty brine – bluest sky tired eyes, open wide either side – all these veins of light!

holy shit what a relief

i pulled myself apart – couldn’t breathe – tore my hair – bit my skin i thought of all the dark – all the ash – all the blood – all the grief i told myself look up – told myself look up and believe and now this peace – like a blanket – enveloping me.

and holy shit what a relief the worst has come and turned to leave and holy shit what a relief! all that weight falling from me and all that breath finally free

everyone around wants to give you their thanks everyone around wants to give you their hands we want to thank you so much! we want to thank you so much! may every breath you breathe be built on sacred things

and i don’t wish for this alone

these are twisted times when trust and truth collide when a stranger’s love could make your heart explode i want to give it all back! if i could give it all back i’d send a thousand suns to warm your worthy lungs

and i don’t wish for this alone

everyone around wants to give you their hands everyone around puts their hands on your back and they say: we want to thank you so much! we want to thank you so much! cause all you did for them, you also did for us

what you’ve done is not yours alone what you’ve done echoes on and on (on and on and on)

but often it happens you know that the things you don’t trust are the ones you need most so it’s cautiously into the dark but you see before long that your eyes will adjust and under the night you can hear the full moon rise like a psalm in the air and the air goes into your lungs and around in your heart and on through your blood it goes cautiously into the dark and you see before long that we all have a part and under your skin you can feel that the fear that you feel is what will set you free

and under the night you can hear the full moon rise like a psalm in the air and the air goes into your lungs