1. |
Atomic Love
04:08
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we were once a sun
from oblivion
our souls were forged in kindred flame
we were drifting dust
evoking stellar lust
they envied us our lack of aim
to be so small and yet profound
to be so infinitely bound
to be so infinitely found
they’d trade it all to us
for our atomic love
we were once the air
we were unaware of corporal pain
of human time
but without regret
we became the breath of one young girl
our souls consigned
and in her heart we made our home
her longing sighs we came to know
we sang our steady song to show her
that she was good enough
with our atomic love
we came to rest
we found our flesh at the same time
but far away
you were unknown
i had been grown without your heat
to guide my way
no shell of skin could ever hide
the supernova in your eyes
when i saw them oh i realized
that i was made of
your atomic love
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2. |
Little Shoes
03:46
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i’m sleeping in a city that i've painted with my feet
every haunted arboretum, every empty one way street
with heavy strokes and heavy strides
heavy strokes and heavy strides
with heavy strokes and heavy strides i dimmed them all
in time i’ve come to find myself a lamb in a lion suit
gazing horrified in mirrors at the limbs i grew
but the havens that i knew
the heavens that i knew
the best things that i knew are far too small
but i will never
i’ll never wear little shoes
i’ll never wear little shoes
i’ll never wear little shoes again
i woke my mother in the middle of the night
crying out for eden, or something of the like
but what was she supposed to say
what was she supposed to say
what was she supposed to say for all her grief?
i’d like to think i’m kinder than i was when i was small
that my hands, which found the world, did good and right when they were called
but we all love to live that way
we all love to live that way
we all love to live that way, don’t you think?
but i will never
i’ll never wear little shoes
i’ll never wear little shoes
i’ll never wear little shoes again
i’ll never wear little shoes again
i’ll never wear little shoes again
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3. |
Semantics
03:42
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on a seashore overgrown
i found some little rivers that had carved their way back home
but washed away before the maps were taught
who am i to name them, but who am i to not?
to deem a thing a river is to say it never ends
the mighty mississippi has no little fleeting friends
if i were to look, if i were to look with an older set of eyes
i would see more things as rivers, for i’d live to their demise
well i guess i’m not your lover, and i won’t be your wife
and i won’t be your widow eighty years into my life
so keep the whiskey steady, keep it flowing like the rhone
i’ll be drowning out the questions that are burning in my throat
to deem a thing a river is to say it never ends
to lose him as a lover means to lose him as a friend
if i were to look, if i were to look with an older set of eyes
i would see more things as lovers than as heroes in disguise
on a seashore overgrown
i dug a grave for every river that’s been doomed to be unknown
but perhaps the sand remembers all their shapes
perhaps it recollects your footprints as you turned and stormed away
to deem a thing a river is to say it never ends
the mighty mississippi has no little fleeting friends
and i would say i loved you in the best way i knew how
and if you were around to hear i’d say i love you now
if you were to look, if you were to look with an older set of eyes
could you forgive me?
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4. |
Lark
04:04
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little lark peeked into the dark
and said, i hate the sun it burns my wings
i want to howl, to make love to the owl
i want to do vagrant dusky things
but to be the warp and weft
is to leave yourself bereft
leave yourself with nothing left to use
to dust off your own shoes once again
i was told i was something to behold
and where i flew the light would follow me
but this job’s been done, there’s a million other suns,
and there’s a lot of girls named emily
and if you took their bones
and removed them from their homes
i wouldn’t find my own among the rest
i’d be fooled by my own chest once again
little lark peeked into the dark
and said, i hate the sun it burns my wings
it hurts to mourn, oh it hurts to be born
it hurts to learn what’s in between
and when the lessons come
they won’t wait for you to run
they’ll be aiming fast their gun against your chest
and with their bullets you’ll be blessed once again
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5. |
East
03:55
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when i look back it hurts me less
to start with the end and leave the rest
when we parted like the sea
just to find i was made of you, and you of me
the continents they came like knives
plunging us into divide
and we were mirrors, sitting face to face
endless echoes of each other’s grace
i never learned how to love
i just learned how to love you
and why was a word that was not often heard
but i made do
i clenched my teeth and withered at your feet
i was north and you were south
my compass lived to seek you out
from where i stood there wasn’t much to see
there wasn’t much without you facing me
i never learned how to love
i just learned how to love you
and why was a word that was not often heard
but not this time through
i’m heading east
or away from you at least
away from you at least
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6. |
The Only Rule
03:34
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i want to be a fragment of a hurricane
i want to bind and weep as dew
i want to bead up and dribble down the windowpane
with you
hosanna in the highest one at the party
i’ll ride it out until i’m right again
you’ll trade me in for kisses and campari
i just wanted to be your friend
i just wanted to be your friend
i dove into you and waded strange
to the ladder, i was christened in the flood
you dripped off my nose and onto my page
and you rended me in smudge after smudge
and i remembered that you’d never give a fuck
and i remembered i could die of you if i tried my luck
i remembered i could die
there’ll be no fragments purling to a sea
i’ll be smoking in the vestibule
there’ll be no beading or needing of me
not the loneliest molecule
i thought love was the only rule
i thought love was the only rule
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7. |
Tom's Song
03:50
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the burning heart of joan of arc
like a phoenix flew to your mother’s womb
and with you came a tendering refrain
on the wings you lost and wings you grew
libra moon, the same hospital room
i came tumbling into the light
and that refrain was hidden in my name
in the parts i couldn’t say quite right
until we met that day
in the ashes of the colonnade
and every love
from the fount, it came and homed in us
through the pines came ringing auld lang syne
and i went walking through our life
our secret spell, our favorite bagatelle
lined the cobbles up to longwood drive
and i hoist my legs on radiator pegs
just to wave you through the window, bye
by fleur de lis, from ludwig to elise
i have loved you before
i will love you once more at least
by the ashes on the mantelpiece
and every love from the fount that came and homed in us
if i’m made the first to find my grave
i’ll be humming our refrain to you
in no notes composed, nor in my finest prose
could i chronicle the garden grew
or how sweet it was to be loved by you
how sweet to know that i will see you soon
with every love from the fount that came and homed
through the martyr’s ashen bones
and one and quarter score of tones
in us
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8. |
Woman
04:04
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i know that look in your eye
what kind of woman am i?
well i’m not the kind of woman you can fold into two lines
and i’m not kind sometimes
no i’m not kind sometimes
i know that look in your eye
what kind of woman am i?
well i saw a mother sparrow drag her child by the beak
one morning in the springtime, and i wept right in the street
i’m not the kind of woman you can fold into two lines
and i’m not kind sometimes
no i’m not kind sometimes
i know that look in your eye
what kind of woman am i?
well here lies a heart that beat itself to death
here lie the ashes from your morning cigarette
i saw a mother sparrow drag her child by the beak
one morning in the springtime, and i wept right in the street
i’m not the kind of woman you can fold into two lines
and i’m not kind sometimes
no i’m not kind sometimes
i know that look in your eye
what kind of woman am i?
to leave before you wake up and never say goodbye?
to splinter from a brightness and burn you in the eye?
well here lies a heart that beat itself to death
here lie the ashes from your morning cigarette
i saw a mother sparrow drag her child by the beak
that morning in the springtime, and i wept right in the street
i’m not the kind of woman you can fold into two lines
and i’m not kind sometimes
no i’m not kind sometimes
no i’m not kind sometimes
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9. |
The Groke
03:04
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come on out, put out your light
i’ve been waiting here all night
but i’ll be waiting by and by
i’ve been waiting all my life
if i’m young then i am old
if i’m young then i am cold
got no honey, i got no light
i ain’t got a thing but time
if i fell backwards through the dawn
it’d be dark again before too long
and if i tumbled through the sky
could you be my everlasting light?
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10. |
Haunt Me
02:39
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i walked into the kitchen and i couldn’t hear a sound
but that certain kind of silence when your lover’s in the ground
our trinkets and our relics, i would flesh them pound by pound
if that could mean my love could come around
so haunt me, darling, haunt me, oh i can’t lose you yet
grab an old white bedsheet and scare me half to death
i need you somehow and i’ll take what i can get
so haunt me darling i can’t lose you yet
i need someone to tell to when i learn to pick a fight
or when i get out of chicago like we always said we might
or when i miss you so much more than i have symbols for your life
haunt me darling, if for just one night
so haunt me, darling, haunt me, oh i can’t lose you yet
grab an old white bedsheet and scare me half to death
i need you somehow and i’ll take what i can get
so haunt me darling i can’t lose you yet
haunt me darling, i can’t lose you yet
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11. |
Time Capsule
04:20
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i didn’t write this for a fractured failing light
for my mother, or my father, or the one i’ll kiss goodnight
on the last night of my life
this one’s for you, it’s been all along
the last person to ever hear this song
can you forgive me for thinking ill of you?
i am trembling on the high dive as little ones are wont to do
i don’t want to go, but you push me
and i’d like to think by the time you come around
i’ll be long since put into the ground
but that’s a lot to ask of you, and that’s a lot to ask of me
you didn’t ask to be a symbol, but honey, neither did we
and with that in mind
do you mind if i confide in you
while i have you here?
i’m still afraid of the dark
and everyone i know forgot my birthday this year
and sometimes i’m afraid that i’m the love of my life
or maybe it’s you, it’s been all along
the last person to ever hear this song
well, here we are.
i am bending to a dive
the shaking in your eardrums all that’s keeping me alive
so what happens now?
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12. |
Brightness
05:23
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you were a brightness that i could not bear
a cynosure plucked from the horizon
to an adirondack chair
and oh how the evening sprawled itself away
beyond us
oh how the clearness bit against its reins
and i held you
like the only time i’ve ever held a gun
one false move and i’m done
you were a brightness that i could not bear
but broken people tangle with their aching
just to make sure that it’s there
and oh how i tangled you in sharp divides
because i’m not kind, am i?
oh how the floaters in your eyes
could not refract me
and hid me in a dark spot on your heart
love’s a cruelness if i’m a moving part
but you were a brightness
you were a brightness and i’m sorry
what of the brightness that i could not bear?
well love comes beaming in through stellar vestiges
and adirondack pairs
and what of the glowing marrow of this little life?
well i bore it witness
and to have floated off with you into the sprawling night
i won’t forget this
but on the walls of my aorta
with fingers dipped in crushed aurora
i wrote
that i am a brightness
i am a brightness for none to bear
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