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Read (Discography): Red Barked Tree

Please Take

Please take your knife
Out of my back!
And, when you do
Please don't twist it!
I felt the stab in my blind side
A poisoned blade to paralyse
A cosh of cash, a net of drink
To anodise, no longer think, so
Please take your knife
Out of my back!
And when you do
Please don't twist it!

F—— off out of my face
You take up too much space
Move! You're blocking my view
I've seen far too much of you

Please take your knife
Out of my back!
And, when you do
Please don't twist it!
I won't hear another word
Another sugared lie
I won't be a part of your
Latest alibi, so,
Please take your knife
Out of my back!
And when you do
Please don't twist it!

Now Was

You're the wizard of was, becalmed in because
The nawab of no, with no place to go
A grandmaster crashed, whose future has past
The wazir of fear, now: Seer of the year

Used up and broken, f——ed up, bespoken
The wear and the tear are easy to behold
Where once was a diamond, now hides a sly man
A corpse of corruption, in rancid decay

Archduke of rebuke, the pharaoh of fluke
The Lear of sneer, once pick of his peers
Charming and hazy, the Llama of lazy
You sit on your hands, 'til the trouble has passed

Eyes that impressed, now idly, undress
Trust once shared, is beyond repair
Pledges sound hollow, which promised tomorrows
They float to the floor, forming lakes of dead skin

A new broom is coming, I hear it close, humming
So near and so loud, drowning out my last words

Adapt

The tide is high, sandbag your street!
Converging, swelling channels meet
The torrent roars, banks are breached
Stay calm, be cool, a part at least

The brakes are on, controlled retreat
Quick-go-slowly, heart valve weak
Fairness flounders, sincere cheats
Disgraced champions, taste defeat

Beware the timely statement leak...
The trigger is the price of meat
Barricade your first floor doors
Evacuate your sick and poor

Be larger picture, stronger, deep
Be good, be bad, be more, elite...
A prince of bread, a pint of peace
In Middle Earth, in Middle East

Go east, go north, go south, go west
Leave mouths open, with your best
Adapt to change, stay unimpressed
Adopt: 'Chekov', to family crest

Two Minutes

Just what I need
Shoot on Sight
Leaking while you vote, four days left
A dirty cartoon duck covers a village in shit
Possibly signalling the end of Western civilisation
As if I give a f——
Evidently side tracked
Positively indisposed
Elevated by restitution
And do you know what?
Coffee is not a replacement for food or happiness
The umbilical twangs
In f and ecstasy
In the ring, on the cut in 5 minutes
Just what I need
Deputise
Wear your star with pride
Shoot on sight
Compose questions later
Religious Vomit.

Opera in the age of fragmentation
Much Later

I'll tell you who I hate on a daily basis

Clay

Turning red
Adopting styles that seem inbred
We're made of lead
Stay on the pace
Recoup the loot, avoid, disgrace
Sink without trace

It's a hoot
Run ahead and blindly shoot
Hit the marker, end dispute

Marking time
Laying boundaries out in lime
A life of crime
Drift away
Never find the urge to play
We're made of clay

It's a hoot
Hit the marker, end dispute
Even if that point is moot

It's a hoot
Even if that point is moot
Run ahead and blindly shoot

Phasing in
Wondering when it's time to begin
The chances thin
Emptied out
No doubt it will end in a rout
We lack the clout

It's a hoot
Run ahead and blindly shoot
Hit the marker, end dispute
Even if that point is moot
Run ahead and blindly shoot

Bad Worn Thing

Jam sandwich filled with Uzied peelers
Frisking pimps and dawn car dealers
The Fat Controller's transport inches
When stealing lives, he never flinches

Observe the poker party aces
In champagne bars, unlikely spaces
Unnerving, swerving shifty places
Where little works or convinces

Follow me! No explanation
The future sold, the Chancellor paces
The growing pains, associated
With a past which no-one faces

They clip their speech
They clip your wings
The absent tribe
Of missing links
The absolute
Of vodka kings
The over crowded
Nature of things

It's a bad worn thing!

Moreover

Persuading analysts
Engaging catalysts
Employing empathy
Avoiding chemistry
Pushing out envelopes
Enhancing isotopes
Refining registration
Avoiding isolation
Surfing without a sail
Banged up or out on bail?
Flying without a pill
Break out exerting will
Swerving and gently rolling
Slipping and softly falling
Review and regulate
Rebuilt and recreate

Mathematically precise
React, evolve, entice
Regroup then dissipate
Annoy exasperate
Linked hands and strolling through
Locked horns with abject crew
Winging and heading blind
With nothing left behind

Avoid analysis
Employ a catalyst
Persuade with empathy
Engaging chemistry
Pushing the envelope
Mutating isotopes
Insist on registration
Persist in isolation
Hung out without a care
Swerving without a spare
Banking without a spill
Climbing a higher hill
Shifting and sweetly calling
Sifting and mentally trawling
Rebuild and regulate
Review and recreate

Mathematically precise
React, evolve, entice
Regroup then dissipate
Annoy exasperate
Linked hands and strolling through
Locked horns with abject crew
Winging and heading blind
With nothing left behind

A Flat Tent

Reset your circuit breakers
Carry out undertakers
Blow away the slightest traces
Deal yourself a hand of aces
New techniques for self-transmission
GPS, pin-point position
Product recourse making hay days
Target locked on head-up display

Return to favourite places
Commissioned art in public spaces
Regurgitate in a panic
Regenerate, post-Hispanic
Blackouts cover, blind attraction
Magnetic souls give mental traction
Run-away days, weekend saviours
Harbours with a hundred flavours

Be a man down
Be a psycho relic
Face a lock-down
Become vitriolic
Relate closely
Mother money
Melancholic
Apostolic

Roll out your measured phrases
Find yourself in yellow pages
Degenerate into static
Empire building democratic
Nude review provides salvation
Chance encounters, assignations
Planting weeds in deep incisions
Scourge yourself with Holy visions

Be a man down
Be a psycho relic
Face a lock down
Become vitriolic
Relate closely
Mother money
Melancholic
Apostolic

In a clamp down
Get pre-historic
Lock a face down
Key is electronic
Deflate slowly
Mother honey
Melancholic
Embryonic

Smash

I remember what he said:
"We are all like spuds and bread!"
Crash at random, road-kill rage
Tarmac trauma auto slain!

I remember what he claimed:
"Shadowed blood and spit remains!"
Fur and guts and stone chip stain
Broken bones on the inner lane

I remember what he said:
"Count to ten when you see red!"
Plus plus ultra uber rage
Plus plus ultra uber rage

Behold the woods of yesterday
Just beyond the motorway
Saw a stag walking away
Thro' the frame of faraway

Down To This

Replaying accidents
Deploying precedents
Before the trial by fire
The evidential weight
The lens that can't create
The signal stretched on wire

Before you know it's
Taken hold it's coming down to this again
Before we know we're
Running scared it's coming down to this again

Fragmented symmetry
A tarnished history
A haunted youth in fear
No guiding principle
Coded invincible
No heaven far from here

Before you know it's
Taken hold it's coming down to this again
Before we know we're
Running scared it's coming down to this again

All I know is, time will waste us all
Time will fade us all from sight
In between clouds, spirit moves us on
Stretching time across the night

Red Barked Trees

Find yourself in opposition
Rid yourself of superstitions
Deploy a mask, get night time vision
Safety off, get in position

A mother's guilt, a daughter's pain
The father failed to take the blame
The search is on, in southern seas
To find the healing, red barked trees

A day of pain, of push and shove
A hidden strength in velvet gloves
Sky writing planes sketch oaths above
In graphic loops an act of love

Traders rampage, on the loose
Dealers howl and hurl abuse
The market growls it eats the weak
Buys children farms in busy streets

A privileged few, a charmed elite
Can slash and burn as they retreat
The search is on, in southern seas
To find the healing, red barked trees