The Ornament from Cenotaph Tapes by John Carroll

I’ve held an army charging on the borders of unrest
They settled in my fingers and weigh upon my chest
The ornament she’s wearing is a dried up shriveled fruit
A trinket that he kept for her to moan around her throat

There’s a dam a-holding water near it’s spilling to the brim
The boats go by and carve the sea for slices of her skin,
But he left her like a lion’s mane the rusty autumn skin
I beat my body like a drum, deadened as you sing

The folly and the shrapnel that carries on the waves
Collecting in the fishing nets and clogging up the drains
All the quavers bent and broken,
And the notes awash with scorn,
Squalling gulls a-calling at a father come and gone

Long before I got here, the place where we once met
You had long abandoned love, a dim and failing threat
And he left her like a lion’s mane, the rusty autumn skin
I beat my body like a drum, deadened by your hymn

The cupboards shift and shuffle as a house and heirlooms fall
Browning all the pictures in your wallet as you call
A steady oak that whistles through the wind and creeping roots
You bronze the shoes and memories that hang around the noose

There’s a dam a-holding water near, it’s spilling to the brim
The boats go by and carve the sea for slices of her skin,
And you left me like a lion’s mane, the rusty autumn skin
I beat my body like a drum deadened as you sing

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