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Lion's Paw Blues & Other Songs

by Menchaca

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1.
A light bulb with a patchwork skin Of colors, as of workout clothes Below: the sticks and stone of Spring In low ravines the frost and snow Camouflaging corpses blend into Un-re-greening ground But stars of hemoglobin burst On the trees and whited crowns We are hunting from aerial balloons We are hunting from aerial balloons Water bottles out-endure The child residents Piled on the riverbank One slips into the current Moses in another age’s Polyethylene basket Drifting toward deliverance While a man hammers a casket We are hunting from aerial balloons We are hunting from aerial balloons
2.
In the dark their target is stripped of garments The secrets of anatomy He is made to forget when their messages un-send He sleeps naked in their granary She palms off love on a turquoise rubber glove The after-spatter pattern bestows Treason’s home is prophecy’s chromosome Making law is breaking code Is called killing the load Keep clicking on…the icon….
3.
Bird on my shoulder
 Is an old jackdaw
 There’s a shadow unfolding
 Underneath the lion’s paw Lion’s mane is fire 
Honey in his jaws Eyes the age of stars 
Tumbling underneath his paw Crown a wheel of lanterns 
Crescents in his claw
 Towers falling down 
Underneath his paw Bird on my shoulder
Is an old blue jay 
Lion sleeps tonight 
Is what he says Lock your doors and windows Tell your children hide 
Lion comes this way 
Make his passage wide Lion’s mane is fire 
Honey in his jaw 
Eyes the age of stars 
Tumbling underneath his paw Crown a wheel of lanterns 
Crescents in his claw 
Towers falling down 
Underneath his paw
4.
Ram standing in a flooded field And he's looking straight ahead Wire running from the pyramid Spots of air time from the land of the dead Not displacing a grain of sand It sails a million miles There's a fire in the moon above the Nile Dictator in a Winnebago And he's flying down the lane One step ahead of the proletariat Demanding revenge in his name Radar and Tarot cards And a tiny silver vial There's a fire in the moon above the Nile In the shadow of the palms She's holding on for me She's got her eyes focused on Some interior form of ecstasy Clothed in gold and plastic explosives In the latest style There's a fire in the moon above the Nile
5.
Matchbook Sam Has slept a wink Only from approved window Ledges does he watch the world go by His glass is looking for a spy Sandpaper Adam Draws his cloak around him And the awkward fitting vestments Shift as he walks along the pavement He doesn’t talk Riders at the bus stop Sealed in their sound sarcophagi Ascend the steps to would-be heavens Or wait for the next stop Adam gets off Sam and Adam face to face Though neither one see They notice something other of each other And walk away From destiny We could be heroes just for one day We could be
6.
7.
The knob turns The doorway disappears You walk in backward And who is there? The closer I get The slower goes my heart Witness the stillness We can start Goodbye my fancy Though you would hardly know me now Goodbye my fancy You will ask my name Goodbye my fancy Though we have kissed a long while Goodbye my fancy I’ll be a stranger now This is for my last And you will not remember My fingers clasped Over your eyes I dissolve In a little pool of water It’s something you should hide And show no others Goodbye my fancy Though you would hardly know me now Goodbye my fancy You will ask my name Goodbye my fancy Though we have kissed a long while Goodbye my fancy I’ll be a stranger now The closer I get...the slower goes my heart
8.
I’m sitting in the Rain Forest Café In the rainforest watching a real time loop I shout I’m buying to some maid in Hawaiian In a grass Versace skirt and a hula hoop She throws me a look and I take my chances And we walk under the canopy where the jaguars luxuriate in the branches   We shipwrecked off the coast And the African broke his shackles in the catastrophe The tribe that found us tied and bound until we exposed Through acts of healing our divinity They turned us out in the cold And we set out barefoot to discover the Seven Cities of Gold   John Fahey may he rest John Fahey may he rest John Fahey may he rest…in peace   O Shenendo…. Mary Bolan’s leaving town before a mob sees to it I love your daughter but I’ve been living underground nursing on the witch nipples of my roots I’ve been sleeping in the field And when I sleepwalk and my impression in the grass is un-concealed   There’ll be wi-fi in the valley And the state fair this year is in the cloud There’s tractor gladiators, ring toss and spirit saviors And corporeal participation is not allowed A revival tent float on the sea The angel of the apocalypse has been detained in security     John Fahey may he rest John Fahey may he rest John Fahey may he rest…in peace I woke up standing in a queue I was trying to screw a rose in my lapel The whistle summoned and the train that was coming Was the Black Diamond Express to Hell The flat cars piled up with clocks I took a seat and I retrieved my ticket from my pocket
9.
There's a mighty rumbling at the water trough And they keep on talking about the crippled queen She may be crippled but she do go clean Captain, captain Don't you kill old Bob Said he may do better If he makes new job Mama cut 'em out Mama cut 'em out Mama cut 'em out Mama cut 'em out Papa sewed the stitches
10.
There’s an animal in there I can hear it breathing The predator is hesitant It must be measuring the steps Away from the nest it will let you get Before intervening Silver strands The handiwork of hands Conversation threads Comprise his bed and when the creature sounds: An irregular violin Strangely bowed Late one summer evening His mother’s voice warns him off A creature had retreated Below the porch What’s it preparing for: Die or give birth? There’s an animal in there
11.
I needn’t be told the flower’s Ceased to be pure I needn’t be told there’s aroma Of fear some people adore Dip your finger in blood and mark the Posts of the door I needn’t be told   I needn’t be told ‘bout the lake Swallowed the sky I needn’t be told ‘bout the blue canopy Of his eye There’s an island of silent natives not On any map you can find I needn’t be told   About the sidewinder About the celestial vibration finder Or the impeccable memory of the reminder   There‘s a figure like morning dew Passes away And there is smoke in the chimney when The tenant’s away The pendulum on the other side's Swinging this way I needn’t be told   I needn’t be told ‘bout the light that can’t Get out of the core I needn’t be told ‘bout the thorn that sliced The interior And behind the one there’s always Another one more I needn’t be told   About the gainsayer About the obedient prayer About the motions of the lonesome rhythm swayer…
12.
“The driver walked away” None of this recorded The night before the war A broken fall Crystal bits of glass In your lashes glisten You speak but pulse Makes it impossible to listen The driver walked away Beyond the witness “The driver walked away” Into the woods On the workstation Secrets in the folder A disconnected limb He couldn’t keep control of The driver walked away After came the men “The driver walked away” "Nothing there" Behind the giant clock The shadow of the numbers The face illuminated He reaches for the structure The driver walked away The film is shown: “The driver walked away” THE SCENE IS FULL
13.
Who can accompany one So gloriously alone? Where can he travel To seek respite from the throne, Where the tongue between his teeth Is like a marble bed And no word rises there Since Lazarus from the dead Where angel faces stare Like wooden maidens from a prow Unblinking at the diadem Of planets on his brow?               Where can he go?             Who can know?   So he wanders down the hall Built to shelter all those souls, Past the dark apartments Not even shadows can household, And he finds a winding ladder And rung by rung climbs down And his garment’s yellow hem A touch of ocean foam turns brown Wind pushes through his fingers And sunlight makes him laugh Nervously like momentary blindness After a photograph   Above the Spanish city’s… Unfinished spires …Rise to everlastingness While their architect expires… Beneath the wheels of streetcars …He flies on by In a patch of sunflowers… Something catches his eye…   Mylar balloons signed Jesus…. Tethered to a string… Waving from the scene of
 Someone’s head-on collision…    Tickled by the adoration He comes down Preparing to meet the faithful As he touches the ground    Inundated with a thousand Streamed transmissions Freighted with requests Entreaties and conditions He slips behind a mannequin’s eyes And hides behind the glass And window shopping pilgrims Sense a deal but pass He waits on one side Of a mirror made of skin Which pictures him desire But will not let him in               He shuts his eyes from witnessing             But can’t help listening Come on down to the witness.....

credits

released May 4, 2015

Written, performed and produced by Menchaca
Mixed by Kevin Sharpe, Metro 37 Studios, Rochester, MI

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Menchaca Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Menchaca is a Pittsburgh-based artist, composer and writer.

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