The Briar Fields: 'Castle Town

‘Castle Town


The silent midnight cobbled streets
Their loose bricks for secrets to keep
Time capsules from the days that are no more
As boredom rakes its poisoned claws
And anxious desperation gnaws
The field mice run to any open door
From inner owls they run to any open door

In the candy house blindly they’d trust
Their bodies to a succubus
So they told the police in the back room screaming
In the passing weeks they rarely spoke
They played till every string was broke
Now they cut off their eyelids for fear of dreaming
They cut off their eyelids for fear of dreaming

In ‘Castle Town
Sandcastle Town
Where everything… seems to go down
And nobody… nobody hangs around
With their own… face…
Maybe someday… in the sun
That high tide will finally come
But for now… we must act in… this time and space

With centipedes and diesel mules
We boarded the festival of fools
Where we heard the pirate’s sermon to the pigs
While stuffing freedom in our heads
They write laws to control our beds
And blow away these shelters made of straw and twigs
They blow away our shelters made of straw and twigs

As the lawmen put away their guns
They said that it had to be done
And so they took the rebel lovers to the sand
For they could not hear the holy word
The same way that the lawmen heard
But who are we to stand like wolves before the lamb?
Who are we to stand like wolves before the lamb?

In ‘Castle Town
Sandcastle Town
Where everything… seems to go down
And nobody… nobody hangs around
With their own… face…
Maybe someday… in the sun
That high tide will finally come
But for now… we must act in… this time and space

And the constable wiped from his brow-
Their blood, then saw you in the crowd
But no one will testify that they saw him drooling
Now every day he stands outside your door
Walks you to school and begs for more
Then puts on his mock prestige but who’s he fooling?
With his trail of twisted shadows who’s he fooling?

He says that you’re his beggar’s bowl
You quench his thirst and fill his soul
And without you he’s just bones upon the dunes
With pomegranate seeds in hand
He demands you follow his command
But a wolf girl cannot eat with silver spoons
No, a wolf girl cannot eat with silver spoons

Once a lady of great modesty
Your sister now gawks jealously
As you run for your life from these wild kings
And she goes to all the seedy places
Undoing her silken laces
Swimming with dogs in formaldehyde springs
Swimming with dogs in formaldehyde springs

And feeling good is never good enough
No she had to try the harder stuff
Now she’s bleeding in a fear-deserted hall
It is the oldest of atrocities
This biblical philosophy:
Take the nails and die before the roof can fall
Take the nails and die before the roof can fall

In ‘Castle Town
Sandcastle Town
Where everything… seems to go down
And nobody… nobody hangs around
With their own… face…
Maybe someday… in the sun
That high tide will finally come
But for now… we must act in… this time and space

And all the tiger lilies have been reaped
The ditches are now filled with reefs
For those who had no time to smell the flowers
And I wait in the starry city
Lifting up the bricks of history
With a desperate plan to greet the morning hours
With a brick in hand, I greet the morning hours

And I wait in apprehension
In the mouth of their detention
For your mention in the rumors of our fate
Though I’m bathing in their acid breath
With the promise of a trickled death
It is nothing but a garnish on my plate
Next to you, it’s just a garnish on my plate