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Guts Rusted Shut

from No Comply by The Well

/

lyrics

The tears that stung his cheeks
Were not the reason he felt weak
And could not stand before
The people who had gathered

His boots were worn to shreds
His feet were worn to bone
And his footprints in the dust
Were wet and pink

At one hip hung a dull blade
That was rusted in its hilt
At the other a stained satchel
Full of stale half-eaten bread

The able bodied jeered and
The child cowered near
As the anguished stranger rasped
In an ill-begotten tongue

Calloused fingertips drew cryptic signs
Where his parched lips
Could not form words he had forgotten
Or had never even known

Then the skies opened up and it rained
And it didn't stop rainin' for days
The villagers fled to their towers
And the traveler knelt just the same

Moss grew where his hair had worn thin
Bark hardened over his rough skin
Bruised knees took root in the soft soil
His whispering tongue uncoiled

Weeks later when the storm gave way to first spring
The floodwaters fell and the town got back on its feet
The smell of fresh blossoms emerged from the narrow streets
Memory's misery drowned in the mud

No one mentioned the disappearance of the babbling stranger
But the families who lived on the edge of the village
Celebrated the growth of a curious vine
That seemed to change its shape from time to time

And the flowers it bore reeked of human sweat
And the thorns left a smear of rust when they cut

credits

from No Comply, released February 15, 2008

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DEEP FREEZE Toronto, Ontario

b. lyin / scrunched / crazed / darkly lit

scraps from scraps / 2005 onward

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