Bells Below from Bells Below by Lil Sluggers

We are barren and we starve them
Sounding bells from down below
With beaten feet they scrape along the floor

And they tumble through my windows
Down the drain they fall from grace
And pile up around the doorway
I can’t make it out of this place

They call with voices all together:
The agony is to wait
For what could never be forthcoming
You must get out of this place.

I answer back with hesitation:
Do you remember how it felt?
When they spent the night together,
And you - alone with yourself

Do you recall the keys you pounded?
The hammer falling on felt
That melody could only take you
To endings you know well

And think of when you lit upon them
The sunrise slantwise again
When you were one that you now envy
Just as you were then

And what about touching another?
Have you the strength to summon up
A little bit of the old radiance
That you quickly forgot

And their reply came on so tenored:
We know exactly these things
As we bear witness to shadows
Silver cast on a screen

But knowing couldn’t buy us feeling
It couldn’t let us understand
And what you feel you do so strongly
Just because it can end

• Baltimore
• Rock
• art rock
• folk rock
• queer
• trans
• Baltimore