KARDASHEV LYRICS

1. The Approaching of Atonement

Fields of gold sway like waves of the ocean
Gentle chimes echo through the air
Their dancing melodies swing with the wind
A unison of wonder from the heavens
Surface level beauty apparent to common eyes
But underneath are my memories
Below the golden breeze
A piece of me remains cold and still
Placed there as a result of my own negligence
I caused us all so much grief
And the guilt consumes me still
I left this place
But you stayed
The further from you I get
The more your face is clouded
I can't see you
And I can't hear your name
I don't want to forget
I don't want you to disappear
I need to return
I need to see you again

2. Silvered Shadows

Coin of pure gold in green oceans
Or a setting sun sinking into open hands?
Tucked away there
Where I've hid all my treasures
One hidden note in the loose earth
With a map to the things that I've found
Drawn by hand
Tied together
With cloth torn from her apron

O, crack in a mirror
A penumbra blinding
Pulled back to what was and weakness in clouded eyes
Torn from the dirt
The willow tree I once knew

Nights are getting longer now (Brother, sister)
In time I'll be too old (Mother, father)

Now, nothing is familiar
The shadow is blinding
This face and these hands
Dead trees and dead soil

I pulled the golden corn silk from my hair
Handmade curtains drew me home
I am a silvered shadow of old air
Where I lived now overgrown

Torn from the dirt
The man that I was
Faded thought
Lost my name
To your ghost

I pulled the golden cornsilk from my hair
Handmade curtains drew me home
I am a silvered shadow of old air
Where I lived now overgrown
I pulled the golden cornsilk from my hair
Handmade curtains drew me home
I am a silvered shadow of old air
Where I lived now overgrown

3. Apparitions in Candlelight

There, a small chair in the dust
On its side with splintered legs
Cracks in a mirror
Across from old portraits
There, a table that I carved into
Secret note below laid to bare
I believed what was written
"I am invisible"

Light the candle in the middle of the room
Light the candle in the middle of the room
Burn your bridges to a past that has been lost
Light the candle in the middle of the room
The shadows in the room have grown taller
I've been here too long
Blinded by greed for a past I don't own
Crater in the carpet
Where I once dropped the match
I speak to shadows, my shadow, myself
Longing for this room to be crowded again
How can I feel what is gone?

Can I be replaced with love?
Kiss away my wooden bones

I am a pilgrim and oh, I am lost
The past that I loved has been molded and mossed
A ghost in the window, a ghost on the lawn
And oh, how I miss it when certainty won

Arms of the earth lay bare on the ground
Through broken windows the cicadas sound

Light the candle in the middle of the room
Burn your bridges to a past that has been lost
On a bed made out of broken matchsticks and moss
Light the candle in the middle of the room

4. Dissever

[Instrumental]

5. Lavender Calligraphy

O, Lavender Calligraphy
You who exist behind every letter
A faint voice, if I listen
What was your name again?

Here's the flower I picked
"I'm sorry"
That I pressed in the pages before
"O, God, those weren't the things that I meant"
Filled with prayers that she made
"Resentment"
That I locked away deep in the drawer
"It was you who said that I'd be dead"
Oh, she made her mistakes
Silhouette of a phantom I know

"Son, you know that you're going to Hell"
Distant voice of a girl who once ran from her father
Looking back now I know, it was fear
Loss again, an explosion, a match
I live on that day
I live in that room
Folding quilts and avoiding her eyes
Dead regret, chitin shell underground

Inside the dresser
That was there far before I could stand
Your molded letter
Folded there in a drawer left unsent
"I love you forever
I like you for always
For as long as you're with me"
What was your name again?

6. The Blinding Threshold

I am transformed
A shapeless artifact of myself long gone
There are fragments in my mind of who I once was
But the memories are obscured by regrets
By apologies I'll never have the chance to make
My eyes no longer see them
Faces and shadows of those who have gone from my view
The weight of all I have seen blurs my vision
These eyes are not my own
I don't see myself in the mirror
I do not recognize this image
Past or present
These eyes can't be my own
I can't see myself in the mirror
I cannot recognize this image
Past or present

7. Compost Grave-Song

At the back of the house by the compost
Is the plot where my brother lies dead
"He got lost"
That's what I told them
And I'm mocked by the stone on his head

How could I have known it would be like this?
It was a mistake!

Moss on the carving
Covers your name
Return to the dirt...
My memories...
Fading.....
And I am to blame
I left you in the dirt that day
How can I stand by your bed?

I am a fragment of stone that was broken
Oh, your mind..
Still alive in the trees
Washed away
My mind is distilled
Into the purest form of grief
Show me your face, my brother forgotten
Let me go
Let me recall
Six feet below...
Five decades away
You are gone but somehow I stay

Place upon me your blanket of soil

Dead branches above
A chasm beneath me
My regret fades to thoughts I can't place

My mind aches to join you
If only that I could forget

8. Cellar of Ghosts

In the cellar
Underneath the stairs
Sips of wine stole
When I was young
Candlelight ghost stories

Every time that I climbed the stairs
Sun pouring on flour like fireflies
Dust-settling room!
Dust set upon my eyes!
I never knew the pain in your hands
I took for granted the days that I saw you

What does it mean to be standing here
To breathe in your ghosts again
I can't release this

Come away with me
I know
I know
All the hours that
I have spent alone
Come away with me
I know
I know
I am bound by my past
I should have known!

I'll make things right

Misted face in the mirror, I'll become your host
Growing shade of a past I can no longer know

What does it mean to lose my own name
To thoughts that have left me alone?
I can't release this!
I'll stay awake until I am dead!
A shadow song of memories bled
A cracking floor
My old creaking bones
I've lost my life to things I don't own

This is all I knew
I ran
Dead men don't come home
I'll rest

9. Glass Phantoms

Say you're ashamed again!
Spit the words out!
This hatred I cannot place
Tears at my throat!
Stone in his hand
As he sobbed on the dirt
Broken glass memories
Spread on the ground

I stood upon the porch
That you brought into being with your hands
Evident memories
I will not stand for this
Slave to anger
Just a shell of a man!
Eat your words, you dying coward!
I don't deserve this! Let me come home!

Let me come home!

Give me back my mind!
Spare me from this!

Oh, tell my father his bastard son
Has come unto the place of his birth
To take his claim!

Shattered glass in the light!
Apparition of thought in my mind!
Clarity caught in my throat!
Oh, it hurts to know!

O, curse of my eyes
To see what is gone

O, curse of the hands
Never come back!
To cling to the past

Let me come home!

10. A Vagabond's Lament

For a shadow to be cast
There a man must stand
But on the pulled up floors of my childhood below me
A sun-bleached love of the past

Shades pulled from the bones of my old home
Torn from the flesh of me

I never owned this
Plaster and frame be damned
Curtain, candle and letter
Compost, cellar and stone
Curtain, candle and letter
Compost, cellar and stone
Curtain, candle and letter
Compost, cellar and stone

11. Beyond the Passage of Embers

Take me home, flame on the floor
Tell them that I'm home, light on the door
Dancing shadows of me
Take me home, fire

Roof, open wide
Eyes to the stars, the sky
Attic, come down
Rest on the ground alight

My empty hand an eclipse
No need to wake again
I'll never leave

Swallow each thought I am
Oubliette, forget me, down in the cellar
Dirge sung in embers to the cracking of dry bones
Rise from these ashen walls our censer

Washed out with the flame

I will be found in the morning
And no one will know who I am

Mind, rise with the smoke
I'm asking for forgiveness
I'm being selfish again
But what else do I know?
As a curling silhouette
I can finally let go
I can finally let go

I have made my return
To the place of my earliest memory
The consequences of my absence are clear
This place I once called home has gone from me
Were it not for my existence
And the remnants of my frail memory
This tired world of mine would be lost
Though
Everything is different
The animals don't come here anymore
The ground has moved
And the arms of the earth have fallen
The windows peering through the overgrowth
Seem to face a different direction now
Even the cicadas sound different
I cannot fathom how
But everything has changed
This is not my home







KARDASHEV LYRICS