Dead Words

people, your clothes are torn and do you feel like you ain't been born?
and do you think you'll see the day when you won't have to pray?

you steal the things that mean something, just like there were no god at all
so save you words for the evening birds when they sing their sundown call 

we drink to forget the time when you ears were mine 
our pleas will flood through the door right when we wanted more

Sundown Call

The forest in the drummer's beat

May 27th (version 2)

he was a creature unlike any before
his name was Callused Andrew and he went there to perform
for the first time
in seven years
since he had gone away

he was born on the first and went out on the last
his mother told him “son you’ve got to run from your past
and if you don’t
you’ll have no chance
to be the man you are
you’re only 17 so far

he ran through the bush made all his own paths
he started writing verses when he found a guitar in the trash
he played away
in all the states
for the county fair
at only 21 years

they all loved him he made money then
traveled the world and with his troubled hands
he played a song
his last to date 
it brought me to tears
in all my 26 years






Callused Andrew

Just Calm

Fire And Iron

Save A Horse Ride A Bear

Selective Harvest

its all I could do to keep it this calm
standing in queue a shepherd’s been lost
such monstrous sheep happily sleep, lain down

tell me now lady what came of the tea?
if visions come hazy then bring Hecate
her face not shown, yet happiness grows, from far down in me

ask for a good life but slack in the aid
rocks flying round here but us dwellers just lie down thinking “oh me, oh me”

towers grew straight through the farm
time came and went sold it as art
boy have we fallen but happily sleep, sleep 



Hecate

you say these fields are our own
but we rip em up and build homes
all the lands in piles with the trees
this place with laws don't seem so free

all the calls of wild in the woods
and the breeding fish in the brooks 
the land sea and sky have been breached 
oh our homes don't seem like home to me

fat cats in cities make the rules
educate our children in the schools
ask our children if they know
how to reap what they sow

we tell our children these old tales
of the days when lives were frail
all the sick and the dead might see
this place don't seem like home to me

Land of Laws

so what happens now?
you are a person of heart
i want to be sorry
I'm not cast for the part
winter cold beaches
and a box of old stones
we'd have to come hither
tell a story by the phone

we've got no silhouettes, we could stow away
a fire in the town, the church came from a play

in the lines of cracked pavement
and the lengths of these rails
sits a newly come convert
with a map for the grail
She sells a mouthful of iron
smelten and black
still whittling sticks
and waiting for attack

Men trapped in the tunnel, seal up both ends
too deep to salvage, trains bring in more men

just stand here, we're departing and finding a better way
our home's up ahead my darling, être calme et de s'installer
is that your son? mad guffawing, he is tearing them down with his screams
how many pieces have fallen? I'm tired of counting in threes
we could see a man, a haunting, and lock his image in a safe
i haven't gone far, still driving, or still standing in one place
enclosing messages in bottles, and filling them up with weights
let them sink to the bottom, we seldom find help in the waves


Bellows 2

i've been on a walk
i've seen them ten people tall
they'll walk beside you for all you claim

if i can stand on my feet
and wander through the trees
i will never have much to explain

and other people can do the same

when they fell they fell far
they've been feathered and tarred 
our friend's will help the feeble see the end

they will fight a fair fight
roll their stones uphill all night
at the top theres nothing left to mend

they will play games but never win

in your land plant your feet
fight against your reigning king
he will bill you for all you've ever had

in your waters wash your face
rid yourself of all you take
take this old world with the good and the bad

i've been mistaken for so many men

stack those rocks make a house
build a fire then go out
spill the blood of the land

eat your moss drink your rot
stoke the fire the coals are hot
and read the words written in the sand

and stand beside them even when you're dead


Benjamin Padgett

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