I found her in a penny-luck lounge Where the wallpaper peeled like dead skin She was leaning on the bar like it owed her rent And the room bent itself to let her in She had a laugh that came out sideways And a voice like a cracked church bell Said, “You look like a man with a secret to tell” I said, “I’ve got more than I can carry, and it ain’t for sale” We burned through nights like stolen gasoline Took every back alley in the city by storm She made me feel like my veins could rattle steel And my fists could bend the weather warm Her perfume was all bad decisions and tequila Her touch could knock the hinges off a prayer I thought I was the wolf in that picture Turns out, I was just the lamb in her care But I can still hear the beams hum low Like they’re talkin’ just to me One day I’ll lean in close And we’ll see who sets who free No use in asking mercy When the hinges start to scream I’ll drop the ceiling, darlin’ And let the dust tuck in my dreams She started asking ‘bout my secrets How I could pull a doorway wide with my hands She’d smile like the fox at the chicken yard fence And say, “Baby, tell me how you stand” Each night she’d pour one more drink Each night the questions wore me thin I told her lies just to keep her warm But each one cut a little more skin It was a Tuesday that smelled like rust And the air weighed heavy as stone She kissed me ‘til the ground forgot my name Then she brought the scissors home She cut the storm out of my scalp Sold the lightning for a ring and a song And the next thing I knew, I was on the ground And the boys with iron hands came along They fed me gravel for breakfast Washed it down with turpentine tea Put a blindfold over my cut out eyes And a shackle where my hands used to be They made me turn the wheel in circles ‘Til my shoulders screamed like burning fires All I had left was the hum of the walls And a mind full of funeral choirs But I can still hear the beams hum low Like they’re talkin’ just to me One day I’ll lean in close And we’ll see who sets who free No use in asking mercy When the hinges start to scream I’ll drop the ceiling, darlin’ And let the dust tuck in my dreams They hauled me out for their parties Paraded me ‘round like a prize pig on a chain Made me dance for the high-heeled jackals While they laughed and spilled my name But I’d been examining the rafters I knew each crack in every beam And I prayed not to heaven or hell But to the sweetness of the final scene One night the room was drunk with noise And the roof was groaning like it knew my crime I put my hands on the two big bones of the place And whispered, “Now’s the time” I pushed ‘til my tongue split clean in half And the boards wailed like hungry ghosts And when the whole damn house came down It was I, the one that loved it most They’ll say the strong man died for nothing Running vengeance down a dead-end street But I felt light for the first time in years When the ceiling came down to kiss my feet And somewhere in the rubble, she was there With her Sunday dress torn and black I couldn’t see her face, but I swear she smiled As the dust pulled the both of us back But I can still hear the beams hum low Like they’re talkin’ just to me One day I’ll lean in close And we’ll see who sets who free No use in asking mercy When the hinges start to scream I’ll drop the ceiling, darlin’ And let the dust tuck in my dreams
THE ALBUM
THE MUSIC
THE WORDS
Side A
When the Hinges Start to Scream
The Girl at the Gate
He swore on the smoke from a paper-thin moon To barter the first face he met at high noon For the taste of a crown and a war’s quick end Never thinking the oath might turn on him Through dust-caked roads, with his steel still warm He came to the fields past the old church barn And there she was — dancing, all ribbons and grin Calling “Father, you’ve come, let the feast begin” But the wine in his hand turned bitter and black His jaw locked tight, and he could not look back The vow like iron, the air like lead Every step toward home felt heavier than the dead She read it plain in the twist of his brow Asked, “How long till the hills take me now?” He spoke of a promise, of debts to be paid Of a bargain made in the heat of the blade Two months she roamed on the far pine ridge With the night-wind’s cry for a final bridge Braiding her hair with the bones of birds Carving her thoughts into nameless words When she came back down, the drums were low Every face in town too cold to show She walked through the smoke to the place prepared Where no one sang, and no one dared They bound her wrists with red cloth strips Laid her down on the altar’s lips Her breath came ragged, her skin turned pale The blade bit deep through the bridal veil He closed his eyes, but the sound rang through As her blood met the stone where the flowers grew A steam rose up where her heart once beat And the stone drank warm from her final heat The smell clung thick to the butchered day Her eyes still wide in a startled sway Her father stood still as her hair turned slack As though her soul had climbed his back The blood ran down to the temple floor Seeping its way to the outer door And the dogs outside began to bark Gnawing the wood ‘til it splintered dark They say the rain wouldn’t touch that street For forty days where the cobbles meet And the girls of the hills lit candles there For the vow and the life it stole from the air They say the rain wouldn’t touch that street For forty days where the cobbles meet And the girls of the hills lit candles there For the vow and the life it stole from the air They say the rain wouldn’t touch that street For forty days where the cobbles meet And the girls of the hills lit candles there For the vow and the life it stole from the air They say the rain wouldn’t touch that street For forty days where the cobbles meet And the girls of the hills lit candles there For the vow and the life it stole from the air
Side B
The Thicket's Teeth
They came down the road, voices sharp and cold Laughing loud like the world was sold Calling out with tones both harsh and thin Marking the end of a younger skin I walked the path they said was mine Head held high through the twisted pine But their words were knives in a quiet fight Cutting soft in the fading light The thicket’s teeth came tearing through Baring fangs that no one knew When the air turned sharp and the ground gave way They learned what silence couldn’t say The fury came down without a plea Bears with eyes like cruelty Tearing flesh like the night was starved No mercy shown, no grace carved The boys’ screams tangled in the thorn The forest drank what the night had born A reckoning cold, a wrath unbound Where mercy lost its final sound Their laughter cracked like brittle bone Answers swallowed by skin and stone And the earth opened wide to take its due When the thicket’s teeth bit through I stood alone where the wilds had grown Marked by the roar carved deep in stone And the lesson etched in blood and bone Wrote the cost of the seeds they’d sown The thicket’s teeth came tearing through Baring fangs that no one knew When the air turned sharp and the ground gave way They learned what silence couldn’t say No mercy waits in the tangled brush No second chance for a foolish hush The forest keeps what the lips forget And answers with a growl, not regret The thicket’s teeth came tearing through Baring fangs that no one knew When the air turned sharp and the ground gave way They learned what silence couldn’t say No mercy waits in the tangled brush No second chance for a foolish hush The forest keeps what the lips forget And answers with a growl, not regret The thicket’s teeth came tearing through Baring fangs that no one knew When the air turned sharp and the ground gave way They learned what silence couldn’t say The thicket’s teeth came tearing through Baring fangs that no one knew When the air turned sharp and the ground gave way They learned what silence couldn’t say No mercy waits in the tangled brush No second chance for a foolish hush The forest keeps what the lips forget And answers with a growl, not regret The thicket’s teeth came tearing through Baring fangs that no one knew When the air turned sharp and the ground gave way They learned what silence couldn’t say
See What They've Done
He came to the town when the sky was low With frost in his beard and a voice like snow Carrying her through the amber rain A bundle of bone and a mouth of pain The gates were shut but the torches burned Every shadow leaned and turned They said, “Leave her here, she’s not your own” But he clutched her close like carved-out stone Past hollow doors and sleeping tombs no sound bloomed and the square was doomed Till the lamplight died in the drunken square And no one asked why she gasped for air Blood on the doorstep, voices gone cold The broken body left to fold A hand raised high in desperate rage Setting fire to a reckoning’s cage See what they’ve done in the night See what they’ve done in the dark The law lies cold in the guttered street And the guilty bear no mark They took her in where the shutters shook Hands like claws and a butcher’s hook The floorboards groaned as the night grew red And laughter danced where the living bled By morning light she barely stirred Skin torn thin and her breathing slurred He laid her down at the city’s wall And called for the crowd with a voice to maul She slipped away before they came Her body stiff, her lips with no name The wind pulled hard through the crimson street While the dogs lay still at the butcher’s feet Blood on the doorstep, voices gone cold The broken body left to fold A hand raised high in desperate rage Setting fire to a reckoning’s cage See what they’ve done in the night See what they’ve done in the dark The law lies cold in the guttered street And the guilty bear no mark He cut her into pieces there With a knife that shone in the open air Twelve parts sent on a stranger’s hand To every tribe in the broken land Each piece arrived on a bed of straw And every house froze in sudden awe A call to rise, to take the field With blood for blood, and no shield to yield And the city still sleeps under rusted eaves Where no child laughs and no mother grieves But the crows remember the crimson rain And the night they feasted on her remains Blood on the doorstep, voices gone cold The broken body left to fold A hand raised high in desperate rage Setting fire to a reckoning’s cage See what they’ve done in the night See what they’ve done in the dark The law lies cold in the guttered street And the guilty bear no mark Twelve parts sent on a stranger’s hand To every tribe in the broken land A call to rise, to take the field With blood for blood, and no shield to yield See what they’ve done in the night See what they’ve done in the dark The law lies cold in the guttered street And the guilty bear no mark Blood on the doorstep, voices gone cold The broken body left to fold A hand raised high in desperate rage Setting fire to a reckoning’s cage See what they’ve done in the night The law lies cold in the daylight See what they’ve done in the dark And the guilty bear no mark See what they’ve done in the night The law lies cold in the daylight See what they’ve done in the dark And the guilty bear no mark See what they’ve done in the night The law lies cold in the daylight See what they’ve done in the dark And the guilty bear no mark See what they’ve done in the night The law lies cold in the daylight See what they’ve done in the dark And the guilty bear no mark See what they’ve done in the night The law lies cold in the daylight See what they’ve done in the dark And the guilty bear no mark See what they’ve done in the night The law lies cold in the daylight See what they’ve done in the dark And the guilty bear no mark
STREAM HERE
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THE ART
