shriekback

Lyrics

EMBER WEEK
V1
though 2 and one more 2 is 4
there is a world in which it isn’t anymore
think I stayed too long at the fair
and I heart 1982
and Patrick Troughton’s Dr Who
it’s more than I can bear
all this nostalgia in the air …

V2
although we’re only passing through
there’s still a lot of terrifying things to do
the learning curve is pretty steep
the consequences unforeseen
…of dope and dopamine
- a sordid world revealed in sleep -
though it is wide it is not deep

what is the true shape of the world?
the shifting light that warms her
and who will map that solemn mystery?
whatever shares the reciprocity
who’ll be the last to speak our names
or make some sense of what remains
here in the Ember Week?
in Ember Week

V3
i’m going ‘ooh ha-ha hoo-hoo’!
(it makes as much sense as a lot of noises do)
and, though it never much appealed,
we spoke of Order and of Law
famine, catastrophes and war
the source of horror was revealed ..
somewhere in Gloucester in a field

V4
the Truthiness is what you thought
the slop, the goo: the whole damn thing was pretty fraught
took some advice from a machine
programmed a beating tambourine
that gave me everything I sought
(I like a bit of a cavort)

How deep the sorrows of the world?
(we need not move towards them)
what will the contours of the ruins be?
who knows what forms will shape us?
what logs the rhythm of our days?
who tracks our disenchanted ways?
here in the Ember Week?

V5
The Seven Wonders are all done
and now I think they’re down to just one wond’rous one
the Lighthouse and the Gardens were the best
I never cared about the rest
I guess they had a decent run:
gently decaying in the sun

and yes I feel a little bruised
and,if I’m honest, unbelievably confused
it’s all absurd to a degree
you can just read that shit and weep
it’s Mariana deep
(or so it appears to me,
here in the margins of the sea…)

who breaks the silence of the world?
the words that crash upon it
and who will write that savage history?
the terrors that we have not known yet
where is the list of all our crimes?
the catalogue of all such Times?
here in the Ember Week?
In Ember Week..