SUBROSA LYRICS

1. The Hours I Keep

Oh mother Oh father
You gave me life
You gave me death

Oh mother Oh father
You loved me well
You can't help me now

There is no escape.

Dark water is all around
On the broken bridge
Revere is bound

A dead-end maze
Dark passageways
Synapse collapse
Reality break

There is no escape.

It's morning
Twelve hours of sleep
You won't believe the hours I keep

A veil is placed before my eyes
I can't see myself
I can't see their lies

There is no escape

I'm buried in this bag of skin
With sham circuitry
Where do I begin?

Oh mother Oh father
You gave me life
You gave me death

There is no escape.

2. Self-Rule

Fixed bayonets in the crisp autumn air
And I have to wonder why I don't even care
Scarlet epaulets and well-oiled hair
I have to wonder, really have to wonder

I invade the nations of the poor
But I can't fight my own battles, can't find a cure
I'll make them feel my rod till they can't take anymore
Can't find a cure, can't find a cure

A cry of war is heard throughout the land
But all I have is self-blame on hand
I'll crush their kingdom with a fistful of sand
Self-blame on hand, self-blame on hand.

I'll subject you to horror
I'll subject you cause I can't rule myself
I rule a nation
I rule a nation but I can't rule myself

Fixed bayonets in the crisp autumn air
And I have to wonder why I don't even care
I have to wonder why I don't even care
I have to wonder, really have to wonder

3. Indian Summer

Midnight
Harvest moon
We'll catch the coach
Not a moment too soon,
My love. let's fly away from here.

Autumn blush
Your first touch
Indian summer begins at dusk,

My love.
Our love will never die,
Our love will never die.

Winter pale
Killing frost
The doctor says prepare for loss,

My love.
Let's fly away from here.

Steel ground,
Fresh grave,
They laid us together, we'll make our way,

My love.
Our love will never die.

4. Jailbreak

It's been 18 years in this prison cell
Separated from my best friend
He lives out in the men's wing
I send him pictures in my head.

How long must I suffer, Lord?
How much can I take?
How long must I languish, Lord,
Before they come take me away,
Take me away?

Gonna get free,
Gonna get free tonight.

I send the blueprints from my thoughts
And we plan our escape.
We ain't goin' nowhere without our friends,
So we tell them all the date.

Bessy's got the sledgehammer
And Marvin's got the screw.
Sally's got the heart of the guard,
She knows just what to do.

Gonna get free,
Gonna get free tonight.

We make our way in the moonlight,
It helps us on our way,
By the time they find our empty beds,
We're 18 miles away,
18 miles away.

Hold me tight.
Hold me tight tonight.

5. How To Neglect Your Heart

They laugh at me, I'm all alone
They question me in jagged tones

They try to tell me what's true
And what's not true
As if they knew, as if they knew

They tell me how to feel
They tell me what I'm worth
They tell me how I've failed
All in their own words

They tell me how to love and how to get along
Passion's all right as long as it's not too strong

Here's how you play the game
Here's how you play your part
Here's how you go along
Here's how to neglect your heart

Fixed life
Like the stars
Never moving, never far

6. Inkfish Dirge

7. Rapunzel

Flailing under the auspices of a broken kingdom
Stuttering up the stairs of a broken house
The golden mansion
The hanging boudoir
The flowers, thick and heavy.

Blown away by rusting debris
In the belly of the gutted tower
Rapunzel dies today, Rapunzel dies

Cinched tight by her own hair
Golden self-destruct, miles long,
Neverending, neverending.

Passes over your skin soft as angel's breath

Help me. Help me. Help me.

I found myself choking on golden stardust
Coming up from my gut
My innermost nucleus
But then I realized
I was choking on the ashes of a dead sun.

Help me. Help me. Help me.

8. Mirror

I took the safe road, I took the easy road
It looked so safe and comforting
There wasn't any trouble as far as I could see.

Avoided the twisty road,
Avoided the unknown,
My daddy said that was the devil's way
And God don't work in mystery noways.

Though I keep on trying to believe that there's an end to all this pain
I just keep moving on, I can't stop to think too long, oh no.
Though I keep on trying to believe that there's a way to be set free
I just keep losin' hold of the things that once gave me relief.

Got married in the winter, gave birth in the summer
In five years' time I had five young ones
But there was something missing, there was something wrong.

One day my husband came back from town
Said honey, you better sit down
There's been another woman for all this time
She's my one true love, can't get her from my mind

Now I break my back from crack of dawn
It's midnight when I get home
There never seems to be enough to eat
And I listen to my children cry themselves to sleep.

Though I keep on trying to believe that there's an end to all this pain
I just keep moving on, I can't stop to think too long, oh no.
Though I keep on trying to believe that there's an end to all this pain
I just look in the mirror and I know I only have myself to blame.

I took the safe road, I took the easy road
But I learned there is no safety there
You gotta push against the current to get somewhere.

9. Colder

Look how far I've come today
I feel I could go forever this way
My back is strong, my legs are long
My coat is warm, my shoes not worn.

But it grows colder, colder still.
It grows cold, it grows cold, it grows colder, colder.

I mark my day on the widow's walk
I watch the sea, hear the sailors talk;
I pined away on my deathbed,
Can you blame me for the things I did?

You grew colder, colder still.
You grew cold, you grew cold, you grew colder (your memory),
You grew cold, you grew cold, you grew colder, colder.

I broke the trust I had with you;
I broke your heart, I wasn't true.
I denied myself of pretty things;
I lied to myself to go on breathing.

I grew colder, colder still;
I grew cold, I grew cold, I grew colder, colder still,
I grew cold, I grew cold, I grew cold, I grew cold, I grew cold ...

10. Force

10 a.m. and I'm drunk again
Bitter cognac, sweet relief
I held your mother before she floated away
Sweet baby skin

Broken window latch
Your nail lash, your warm flesh
The only way I'll ever love is by force

I'm asleep in the chasm.

The only way I'll ever love is by force
I run from hell through golden aloe
Everything moves so slow
When all your lovers leave you

11. Hillbilly Death Song

Oh, it's good to die when you don't want to live no more
It's good to die when you don't want to live no more

When the happy moments of your life seem like tiny isolated islands
And the pieces of your soul are reaching up and choking you like liquid violence

Oh, it's good to die when you don't want to live no more
(Yee haw!)





SUBROSA LYRICS