Episode #362
Mulberry Knives by Amanda Smart and Ron Allen, Performed by Elise Christiansen~
[Verse 1] Round and round the berry bough We trace the chalk with careful mouths Paper hands and waxen crowns All the little doors are down In the state of snow and stone They carved a law in marrow bone A sealed decree, a midnight page A hungry seal, a hidden cage [Pre-Chorus] Something old begins to grin Underneath the skin again Something green behind the eyes Learns to bloom where reason dies [Chorus] This is the way we kill the babes This is the way, in mulberry shades This is the way we kill the babes And say the lie, and call it grace Round and round the fruit-black loop We sing it soft, we sing it soon (we sing it soon) This is the way we kill the babes This is the way [Verse 2] Massachusetts on the slate Wrote the room with iron hate And every word went dressed in lace To hide the knife behind its face Needles in a chapel jar Comet ash and broken stars A mother moth, a butchered bloom A cradle full of empty room [Pre-Chorus] Hear the little iron hymn Turning under glass and brim Hear the silence, hear it ring Like a thorned and polished thing [Chorus] This is the way we kill the babes This is the way, in mulberry shades This is the way we kill the babes And say the lie, and call it grace Round and round the fruit-black loop We sing it soft, we sing it soon (we sing it soon) This is the way we kill the babes This is the way [Bridge] [Long Strange Solo] Bowed violins saw through the dark A contrabass drags a coffin spark Synths coil low like black glass snakes Choir fragments split and separate Timpani rolls like distant drums A cathedral of rust undone Notes bend thin, then split apart Like paper birds with iron hearts A horn line moans, then disappears Through vaulted fog and leaking years The melody turns inside out A mirror swallowing its own mouth One long cry, one circling thread One silver wound, one word unsaid Then a pause Then a pulse Then the strings return in shudders [Chorus] This is the way we kill the babes This is the way, in mulberry shades This is the way we kill the babes And say the lie, and call it grace Round and round the fruit-black loop We sing it soft, we sing it soon (we sing it soon) This is the way we kill the babes This is the way [Outro] Round and round The berry bough Round and round The verdict now This is the way we kill the babes This is the way the garden frays This is the way we kill the babes And leave the moon in paper chains
