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Swidden

by Blackbird Raum

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1.
our master's gone, we've stole our master's horses and stole away, running if we return, we shall be drawn and quartered at tyburn cross, hung the ladies fair who ride the skies above us will come to swing their whips to lash the backs of all the painted gentry who have burned runes black if I cross the river will you cross the river or drown in this desert, this empty cup we're drinking from if we are beasts, are we not beasts of burden so ride alone, or ride with many others just ride away as fast as you can
2.
"I am slain by that traitor knight that rideth invisible" -Sir Thomas Mallory wake in the morning, the hold of the anchor the walk of the cunning, the hole in the ship it's easy to be firemen in a house made of brick spit the pus from your mouth, you bastards you ruin my dress when you talk given a sentence, laid on a plate shake hands and eat the shit the acquitted were hard wrung through a dripping cloth it's good sense, not superstition so heed that old hag when your mirror is broken it could be seven long years laugh like an empty can with a string seven times you wrap your craven tongue around a torch swine they wallow, the scuttle there, a paradise of muck hens they cackle, they love to talk, they love their suffering
3.
"fight on, my men, sir andrew says, a little ime hurt, but yet not slaine; ile but lye down and bleede awhile, and then ile rise and fight again" -Ballad of Sir Andrew Barton look, there's no survival here I've been trying to tell you this is just the lag time, waiting for the other shoe to drop when do we draw the line if not when the river's dry? I'd like to burn off the hat and mustache of the clown who runs the show the illusionist and the whisperer, presiding over cardboard cityscapes the storm is just a sheet of tin the grain is eggshelss this is not music it's doomy fanfare it's just bloodless escape artist well I'm not one rubicon drawn if not when the rivers dry if not when the oceans die
4.
the silent, the severed, the path of raven, the words are dead one thousand ladies in ribbon all adorned underneath the sun, underneath the earth underneath an awful banner and golden trumpets they're braying like clockwork mules in a time of plague, in a time of war the poisoned landscape, defiled by the factory pipe the sickened land, the sickened sky cold eyes are spying from the top of the pyramid the government thug, the government snitch but I want something much more different not these factories of prisons I wish that the earth was green again I wish I had a gun in my hand someday I will come back in from the cold
5.
Witches 03:54
"and I to whom a great vision was given in my youth -- you see me now a pitiful old man, who has done nothing. For the nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer and the sacred tree is dead" -Black Elk in others' mouths, a scraping of rocks who walk a rope, run along the ground, into the basket whither the sky is fatted of ice come as the earth grows richer of blood the doe is in season we pull our teeth out, laying down in easy places we thicken the air with talk, but cover our eyes up with our hands they're shooting the wolves from helicopters, can you believe that out in the wide world, the wildest ones are vanishing quickly out in the wood, a passing of hours in the jailhouse of limb, a passing of years, into the casket I will not crouch, polluted with law no traitor to witch, not traitor to wolf, judas escariot now the white wool is twisted round the land the cowering altar and matricide borne, the stones they are screaming I could call them men but they are not men, faces like blood rags yet dressed to the fines, chariots surround us but it won't be the witches that are burning this time
6.
Greymare 00:30
sinking like the sickness says, "sickened while the sinking stay" civilization is a train speeding towards a tunnel painted on the side of a mountain I will watch it sink into the earth like an empty suit of armor I can hear the engines grind like screams of horses in a fire doing what the master said, at least until the master's dead I saw them drag her in the street; the cops on pavement broke her teeth she was screaming like a horse inside a fire
7.
burn wounds, legless dolls houses charred and empty flood lights, uniforms haul off our families in trucks what are those hills we see so far those are the hills of the homes we left I miss my little sister so, can't we go back and look? sorry, your sister's gone for good see that tip of land, she said, that is where me must walk and there find a passage out to the sea I'm so very cold, can we not light a fire? no we can't light a fire, they'll see, they will come for us it's a long, it's a long way, coming down the mountain it's a black, it's a rabbit black, coming down the mountain
8.
Woodwose 03:05
each colder day, with stones in the kettle to last until may gathering the damp wood to spark in the rain when summer's gone she lay with the grey queen huntsman walks ragged of cloth, ragged of war in the winter dark, the shatter glass dog, it fell by the side slower to take, walk with the old ones the edge of the lake push through the dead leaves and left to decay
9.
imI'm amused by your distaste, it's because you're ankle deep in waste I did not run because I was afraid, I just ran to get away parasite in a dim light every day is social war, the rich drink blood while we eat sawdust and you defend your bullies it's fucking depressing you kept your master's lies alive, while I was stealing to survive you're on a treadmill climbing higher, while I'm setting mine on fire I've come to know the policeman's club the bastards defend their territory and you defend your bullies it's fucking depressing
10.
colors of such that our eyes were burned and gold boughs from which to hang oneself we've got reasons like the seasons ringing we've got weapons without name mirthless though dressed up in comedy the screen's glow is hiding the mammon beast it's cauterized the senses that allowed us real life the carrot is how we avert our eyes and in time we're willing to lick and to contrive spending in digital atmosphere smiling as we've learned to love the stick choking back emotions into character armor the wizened paw of crom is a-hanging off his leg his ribs are sticking out like a leather birdcage he's aged so many years in the past few days oh crom you're such a good dog ease this pressure, lay down weaker, gasp and shudder and never stand up again cannot feel them, cannot feed them, cannot hear them, as the dogs they bale and whine I am weak we are all weak, but I'm not as weak as you; with a dead dog in your arms with a needle and its tip to suck the life and starve the dog, the boy is lying on the floor, raise him colder to the sky
11.
under heel, under yoke, breathe the gas to cough and choke bleach out the oceans, castrate the wind sterilize the blood so we die while we live what we fear is what we pave, so bury the planet in a concrete grave say your prayers, cast your vote place the predator's hand around your throat
12.
on the catapult you're still alive, the tar rests deeper inside a gift, a wound that's wrapped and proud the highlight of your tour the end came quickly with war we're left with billions of open sores limbs gone, infections, addictions, injections made babies born blind and weak melting in the sweat of agent orange every day the hook is horse and threats, now being sentenced to a field and short were the changes in air like stacks that are rising through cases of stairs the lights in the city reflect on the levy phrased illness you know once again and the guards were yelling our names as we pushed their hands away we're cowards, we're dead if we don't kill the ones maintaining the waste
13.
I fill my mouth up with air, honey in the hair I fill my life up with time, asleep in the vine, whiskey and wine who makes the wind blow, I don't care, my eyes roll back in my head I'm just walking in circles I see the lines in chalk on the ground one day this will all come down someday this will all come crashing right down so go on with your life we will bring you down
14.
Coal 04:12
the pillars of the world were shaking like the legs of a drunk hot winds ripped the hats off all the ladies all about town that day then they caught us ran us ragged beat us bloody put us in a dirty cage now we're screaming bloody murder we are starving won't see the ocean side again continents and mountain ranges boats out in the harbor, rivers clouds and cities all aflame the sun went out the sky went red the horses our dancing in their skins the taste of ash and sulfur on our lips Where is my boy, where is my son. I seem to have lost him in the crowd, he was holding to my hand just a moment ago I know he cannot find his way he is so small he is so lean he looks like a scrap of paper on a branch I am flesh and you are pale, I am sleeping you are dead, we're all playing cards as the ship goes down We're living as if we are not, hanging from a precipice, shuddering and lurching off the edge but someday this will all be gone, as fast a match can be struck, take warning for the veil is very thin the signs aren't difficult to read: we tread so heavy on the ground and one day the ground it may give way. I see you gilded gentlemen, I wish I'd set a torch to you while I still had the freedom of my legs. I do not trust you with my life, I do not trust you with my past I do not trust your hands upon the world. but now I'm sunken in the ground, all my strength to move is gone and screaming is the last recourse that I have, you've left us with a barren earth, we know we are the aching land, a scorching waste with all the life of coal
15.
Germinal 04:25
see how fast I can run a window is closed in the cold race up the stairs with a friend sit in the hall, stare at a wall the words that you said by my hospital bed on my back and bent at my knees were talked through air were talked through teeth through a pain in my stomach and blood on my sheets the one with the cold metal hands up on a table undone a tube in my womb all again the breath and the clothes of a friend close my eyes, a placenta dies
16.
matching shadows with a coward don't move slowly, dark the tower the longer that we wait in the cage in which we wallow keep the promise singing without the words that we cant swallow stopped the car miles from the border outnumbered from the beginning mouth full of blood radiated rust

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released October 31, 2008

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Blackbird Raum Santa Cruz, California

cryin and complainin

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