October 4-Track B-Side: Strange Fire

Art by Billis Helg

Writing:
Often in this society I have been called to watch - to be the unseen seer, to treat real life as a TV show, and believe myself to be an uninvolved audience member. I’ve fallen prey to this temptation too many times. There is no uninvolved watcher; we are all a part of what unfolds among us. The call to be a disembodied set of eyes is a call to assume power and shirk responsibility, to judge and condemn while hidden in a safe space, thinking no one sees you. But we are always seen, and the eyes that we choose to see the world through are the ones we will be judged through.

Recording:
1 - Acoustic Guitar
2 - 12-String Guitar
3 - piano
4 - vocals

Lyrics:
Every jar is empty, I have made my offerings
The dogs are howling on the streets, my love is paper thin
Your tongs glow hot outside my door, you wait there for my soul
Your eyes are covered in a cloud of dust, your lips are lit by coals

You’ve laid your preparations out to catch me in a fault
You place your accusations under names you are not called
You reached out blackened hands to grab the light you cannot see
And if you didn’t leave off there, you won’t leave off at me

If I were of
If I were of
Of this world
I’d be home

If you say it
If you say it
Say it’s so
Then it’s so

I see you now
I’m inches from your brow
You can have my body, you’ve won every power
But I know what you look like now

So many puppets waved
To hide your naked face
You can play pretend, pick them up again
You can fence me off, lie to all my friends
You can make this story bend to your darkest end
But I know what you look like now

You will take all that you like and not be satisfied
And you will not keep warm tonight by the coals of this strange fire
The fire has watched you silently in all that you have done
And in the end you’ll have its eyes to see what you’ve become