1. |
Hawthorne
04:23
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if these walls could speak
they’d sing songs of warmth
and of human love
of the rarest kind
of those late-night walks
for those secret smokes
with my oldest friend
and confidant
my folks built you up
from wood & nails
concrete & slate tiles
and then placed me inside
so hush now hawthorne home
don’t cry
there are younger families
for you to keep dry
and in harsh coastal winds
won’t you usher them in
‘cause we’re leaving you
we’re leaving you
it was under this roof
that i first learned the truth
of this road that i walk
and this coil i’m on
where i first felt the taste of her lips
and the haste of her hands
as we’d sin in our uniforms
so hush now hawthorne home
don’t cry
there are younger families
for you to keep dry
and in winds maritime
won’t you shelter their lives
‘cause we’re leaving you
we’re leaving you
though you kept us well
we're leaving you
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2. |
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found me stranded
in this wintergarden
guarding our museum
loved your damage
loved the challenge
precious history
juvenile tunes
in the bathroom
of my grandad's house
now there’s no more breathing in
because you are a song i used to sing
but now you're just a melody, faded
driving out west
with those i love best
pile in, tiny car
three days drinking
braid the trail through
desmond’s whirling winds
now the keys don’t seem to fit
because you are a place i used to live
but now you're just a memory of it
faded in the time between the split
to foreign lands and
letting of her hand
this is a game i used to win
but now it's just a memory of it
faded in the time between the split
to foreign lands and
letting of her hand
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3. |
Cathy
04:18
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it’s nigh on six weeks
since i woke to the whispering
lips that did litter my cheek
but already there’s a coldness
crept into your tone
and it’s something
i’ve known you to show
to others
but now it's trained on me
now to sit in places
we sat at the start
the first perch in mary’s
and the library bar
sitting in rooms that remind
while i try to forget
is like attending a wake
to forget about death
oh cathy
i should have seen you coming
that scar upon your brow
should have been enough
to send me running
but i stayed here against
and in spite of myself
and i’ll never do that again
i’ll never do that
even loved the hint
of your morning breath
and i’d time my breathing
in concert with it
not to miss a moment
don’t know where the time went
or how things could change so quickly
oh cathy
i should have seen you coming
that scar upon your brow
should have been enough
to send me running
but i stayed here against
and in spite of myself
and i’ll never do that again
i’ll never do that
baptised & born again
in the en-suite of a dimly-lit
quayside hotel
the gap between your teeth
wild & wise
and frighteningly free
the blouse you’d cover up beneath
if we were headed someplace
and my folks would be there
oh cathy
you were just a child
how could i have become
so willfully blind
to the state, volatile
of your developing mind
now it’s time to leave you behind
i wish i could leave you
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4. |
Old Walls
04:38
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i am standing aghast at the canvas in front of me
that hangs in the back of the national gallery
on this pilgrimage to places
where you would stand net to me
i cannot help but feel lost
but for some brushstrokes that constitute a man
old & dying in an oversized suit
and i felt old & shabby much the same as him
when i’d stand next to you
there’s a dignity that’s borne in his pose
pride, ossified in spite of the end
and i felt jealousy form in the folds
of me
when i’d stand next to you
as you built them
brick by brick
and now i’m surrounded
by it
these old walls
that are back up around me now
these old walls
that are back up around me now
i’ll break him out through the brick
carry him to the shores of france
in one last gasp of ife
in this cosmic comedy
we’ll sew the missing joinery
make our way south to provence
in the autumn
right down at the bottom
of it all
of it all
of it all
we’ll walk the fields in the sun
and i’ll pick a sprig or two
and toss it to the wind
and i’ll stop & think of you
with every whispering of it
i’ll hope we’ll both escape
this integument you’ve made
for us
these old walls
that are back up around me now
these old walls
that are back up around me now
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Callum Orr Dublin, Ireland
Songwriter in Dublin
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