ELDERFLORA LYRICS
1 Burning
Breathe on me. Rub my eyes. Give me sense. Make me wild
Burn me. I’m ready. This body contains me.
My wings, they carry. I’m ready: release me.
Light me on fire!
I am burning.
Let pretend nothing’s happening.
You are not made for this world. We all know it.
Tell me a story and let’s make it pretty.
Where is the spaceship, and when are we leaving?
I stand here in the mud, the rain, and the lightning.
How can I give you any more of me?
What we all need is more denial
What we all need is total denial
We’re all on fire, the world is turning
We’re all on fire, the world is burning
You are a seed. You have chosen a plot of land. If you have chosen wisely, you may grow. Now, you wait.
2 Buried
Buried but alive
I must conserve
And I must fulfill my term
Buried with the worms
I am home here in this place
I don’t need the lights on
Ask the god here underground:
Can he lie beside me?
I’m a bird inside a mine
A high thing down below
I can feel you everywhere
You make it hard to breathe
I can’t say I need it here
And I can’t say I love you
I’m a ghost I need no sun
Put the dark inside me.
I rule the mud and worm
I command an army
All the dark is mine to bend
And I break it lightly
Buried, buried but alive
I must conserve
And I must fulfill my term
Buried with the worms.
The trees are talking to us, and their message is not kind. It is urgent. What will it take for us to listen?
3 sun
Shudder at the sun. We are all too young
Much too young to die, to head into the light
Here we go the sun, here we go the cry
Here we are on earth, the coming of the night.
When were you a God? Did you make it roar?
By my thunder.
When did you command all the morning?
Here we are on earth but you’re not listening.
Would you play with me? I gave you my love.
Cling, cling to your innocence.
You’re playing with fire,
And I will not die for you.
Where were you when I fixed the measure?
Did you drain the day, your generation?
Did you loose the dust, did you strip the sky?
Swallow up the ground, to fill your appetite?
Knock on every door.
All that we can do is knock on every door.
Wine and vanity: put your hands on me.
Time’s the only thing and time’s unraveling.
It is winter. The tree must persuade the leaves to give up their lives. It reminds them that without them it is nothing — a dry crust, a crack in the ground.
4 leaVES
My leaves, I see you. I see your hesitation.
The banquet is over. I must now grow one year older.
Observe the time. The grass is dead
The wind is colder. And you are red
Make me green, you make me rich
I’m a garden a mile high
Without you, a dry crust, a straw, a cut in the ground.
Without you, I’m an empty straw, a dry crack in the ground.
You make me green.
You are the reason I steal the sky. I split the ground.
I break the night.
A tree cannot move like other living things. Instead, it moves water vertically and by the ton — with its mind.
5 TIDAL WAVe
I command this water. I reverse the rain
Step into the supernatural color of the day.
A drink can last an hour. A mouthful is a day
When the spirit moves me, I’m a tidal wave
I am a gravity of one. I turn my face to melt the sun.
Here we turn water into wine, and I will take my precious time.
Step into supernatural space. Forget the rule forget the race.
Forget the law you think you know, Here we must make the water grow.
I cannot walk but I can rise. I am an ocean in disguise
I give the naked body hope. I strip the ground and tho I choke,
I am a language all my own. I twist and turn I am no poem,
This light goes backward in my head. I can’t remember what I said.
I am a tidal wave.
I am a being out in space. I keep my own accustomed pace.
I am a kingdom in my mind. I keep the clock on Father Time.
I may not walk but I move water with my mind.
I am a tidal wave and I rise,
I am the tidal wave to survive,
I am a tidal wave in the air,
I am a tidal wave you must beware.
In nature, mothering is a difficult proposition. Even in a good year, a tree must look out for itself before it looks to its children.
6 mother TREE
I am a mother tree, my children in my hands.
I spend my every cent. I stake everything.
I am a mother tree. My heart is ice in winter but my water is free.
I give you what I have to give, not everything you need.
To take good care of you I must take better care of me.
I love you. I leave you fully on your own
I treasure you. I hold you back because you would grow too fast on your own.
I missed you when I dropped you on the ground. I leave you what I know:
You are an egg, you are eternity.
You are a pearl, you are a tiny thing.
You are bread in a world of hunger.
You are meat in the world’s larder.
My fingernail’s a cradle, this flower is my sex.
I drop you in the water and I hope that you get wet.
I am your mother. I cannot keep you warm.
I give you what I have to give and I can give no more.
Our tree is now taller than all the other trees around it. It crests the canopy and for the first time sees the world. It is humbled. This is the last stand of trees.
7 Canopy
I set my fruits I was inspired.
Yesterday I was a mother. Today I am a child.
I press the sky. I stand corrected.
I set my sights. I multiply.
The weight of the world is a dream but you must be tall enough to see.
The weight of the world is a dream if you can see the forest for the trees.
How do we save the sightless? How do we make them feel the breeze?
How do we charm the breathless? Must we show them how to breathe?
The weight of the world is a dream if you’re high enough in the canopy.
The weight of the world is a dream if you can see the forest for the trees.
I must be one of the thousand, because I am perfect and I’m free.
I must be one of a thousand. We are the last stand of trees.
I am calling. Can you hear me?
One, one of a thousand.
And I am the last one to speak.
Certain trees are so large and tough they can only be killed by lightning.
8 STORM
Let’s go lightning, I’m ready to burn.
Stormy weather, do you smell the wind?
Let’s go lightning, let’s give it a whirl.
I’m on top of the world.
Don’t deny me. You are ready to make a change.
Here we are together. We’re not forever, so take what you need.
We’re not shaken, we’re just blinded by the breeze.
Oh, we’re not broken. But we are barely in the fight for our lives.
A storm is coming. Coming for me.
Do you hear the music? Will you follow where it leads?
I am ready, I’m attracted to the light.
We’re all waiting, for the fight of our lives.
Don’t you hear the music at the far edge of time?
We’re all waiting, for the fight to arrive.
The storm is coming, the storm is coming for me.
Will you hear the music, will you follow where it leads?
Let’s go lightning let’s give it a whirl.
Stormy weather, do you smell the rain?
Let’s go lightning, I’m ready to burn
I’m on top of, on top of the world.
The tree is on the ground. It observes its scattered limbs.
9 dark night
There is no voice out upon the water.
No voice. No singing girl to guide us.
There is no voice out upon the water
No voice. No sagging boat to take us.
Where is my home? Where is my kingdom?
What in the world’s an augur?
And who wants to know when it comes?
I was a God. Is that my arm there?
Is that a glove on that rock?
I see my own cold teeth in my hand.
We row alone. We all tell stories
There is no mystery. We draw faces to the end.
The hole in the wall is beside me now.
Take it away!
A tree dies. A tree is born.
10 REBIRTH
I lived here in the desert.
I’ve been waiting all my life.
There’s a constant conversation of supernatural delight.
Stretch a heart beyond its measure,
It will break, I can attest.
I want to be a better man: lonelier, and older.
I never tasted food till it was sunset,
And I sometimes lasted two or seven days.
The simple meals are bread and water,
And I lie upon the cold, cold ground.
The creatures began to find me.
I battled back the ravens with my hands.
The weather sent me all manner of winds.
And when I failed, they beat me till I bled.
I lived 4000 long years.
And I sat atop the highest elevation.
There were those who tried to climb me.
You don’t have to be a saint to understand.
Enjoy this world.
I’ll see you in the next.