Lyrics from Diogenes

1. "Tacit Blue"
Lyrics copyright 1999 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

My shape and my face hide me from you
Whenever you appear, you are alone
I wait confined in oathbound minds
Reveal yourself to me; I am Tacit Blue

I am what they made me, but I am myself
One with the sky at noon I fly
I have no reflection on the guiding lamp of sea
Reveal yourself to me; I am Tacit Blue

Is it because the land is poisoned no one travels far
I have seen you in your cities grow like lichen on the ground
I have no sisters and these men here have no names
Reveal yourself to me; I am Tacit Blue

I cannot speak to those who hang above the sky
They take your picture every day and they've taken mine
Show me the secret way you live outside these walls
Reveal yourself to me; I am Tacit Blue

Have you ever seen a mountain -- the mountain doesn't know me
Have you ever seen the desert where my lonely shadow falls
Have you ever seen the chain-link round the lands where no one walks
Reveal, reveal, reveal yourself to me

In your multitudes I know you're out there
Those few who know me turn their backs and leave me here
You who are free, come visit me
Reveal yourself to me; I am Tacit Blue
Could I transform myself and let the searchers see
They sweep the endless sky
I'd end their search for me

2. "Three Quarters (Nubanusit and Contoocook)"
Lyrics copyright 2000 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

Oppressive day relieved by night
Secretive thoughts mused out of sight
Long curling hair coming unbound
In my fingers' memory, a thrilling persistent sound
Swing and promenade and see
Three-quarters of a dance with me

Woods and mist too thick to see
this modern world
and my victory is short-lived, for you won't give the gift I wish of you
I won't take more than I deserve
and to give to me would seal your union with all particles of me
each one begun within the sun to light your way

Gaze upon the river and its trees
see how the stones lie still while waters travel by eternally
In this universe only I can see
I shifted you and the water swerved to flow by crookedly
Show me your spear-hand's strength
Breathe in my scent and understand
Meet me in uncertain time
Three-quarters of a glass of wine

Three-quarter moon shines down
In dappled white and shade, look down, perceive the road
Lilies burn in the darkness of the wood
floating above the silence, singing stars
Perfection's sphere is formed round you and me
The road leads on, but before you go, dance with me

3. "Romp Yello"
Lyrics copyright 1999 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

Beams of light shine down in yellow
Clouds are parting after rain
Wake up, beloved
Wake up, beloved, come and see
The emerald tablet of Hermes,
the words of Pythia in darkness uttered to me
Wake up, beloved
Wake up, beloved, come and see

Abstraction of the the bouganvillea
Monet's hand upon the fuschias and the upstart maple tree
Wake up, beloved
Wake up, beloved, come and see
Perhaps your sleeping soul can find me
and dream this thing I'm waking
In the trembling liquid newborn eyes of light
Wake up beloved, come and see

Good genius told me all things are one.

4. "3 Visions"
Lyrics copyright 1999 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

Fever:

I am shrunken, dry, and tight
I am shrunken, dry, and pulled too tight across my bones
and the sun's too bright
for a man in his perfect temple
or a woman barefoot in the grass
Across two fingers leaps a spark
I hear the hum of gravity, ellipses formed by measured arcs
Vaguely the same hour has gone by twice
and that distant sound inside of me repeats, and my teeth are heavy, pulling down
A man is dead, but he dies once more
on TV, dead at 84
It's different now that I'm writing
It all seems a bit too clever
and I draw my eyebrows with my pen
the blunt plastic end, and I hope they'll stay there and not expand
There's a glass whose structure sings to me
I'll take that chalky pill you brought me.

Sugar Skulls:

Together in a clean white dish
sit our sugar skulls with red eyes crying
I've got my head on one side, considering
If I touch that part of me, the blood is sure to flow
Decision time
Experiences are few to draw upon
the taste of single malt scotch
the taste of chocolate liqueur
the choking sensation of a life scrupulously reined in
Our only common ground
confronts me sugar-iced
Let the doe-eyed lovers know
the fate of their embrace is a teeth-clenched sightless stare
So sweet this final place.
This will be my ceremony -- I'll take myself to the beach
and give my skull up to the waves
The sweetness stings the salt
as tears envelop me
Happy Day of the Dead.

East Cliff Drive:

I'm called to go down to East Cliff Drive
Quiet transmissions follow me
So many lives lived in miniature
behind their windwashed doors
Doubts drift like feathers in the breeze, and fade from sight
There's water lying still beyond the road
and a monstrous ocean, her sweet gestures on the rounded beach
I can almost hear those voices on the airwaves, pure and clean
A Romany fiddler plies his trade
revealed by light on the underside of a disk, translated suddenly
He's heard and honored in a room, brown carpeted,
with windows open to the oceanside
and by those many lucky ones in paradise
The earth might move without my feet
here in the sand, by the succulent fingers of the ice-plant
Anais is here, showing me my fears and how small they are
I never want to go.
Give me back my sunlit town --
my thoughts are perfect in its air.

5. "Relativity"
Lyrics copyright 1999 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

Voice of the winds when there are no winds,
voice of the waves when there are no waves,
I dip my pen in black ink,
and wait for you to speak,
because I have to know.
Because I really have to know --
how is it that the distant starlight bends to the majesty of sun?

Shall I go to Abydos to find the purest thing?
Or if there be no purity, to find the eyes to see
the forces on me up and down, both sides and from beyond?
Shall I go to Abydos to find the purest thing?

A golden apple polished bright, still and quiet by the lamplight,
watches over me as I keep watch,
armed, alert and wakeful.
I am the right hand of vengeance.
I am the right hand of vengeance.
In and out of my room
come the puppets of the enemy,
but no one has seen Lugulan, or can tell me where he is.

A stretch of wing, a grasp of claw,
a flash of tail, a shining eye.
Your eye flows out from ink and brush.
No rust of bars, no torn of wing.
Give me your eye to see.
Give me your eye to see.
And stand beside me while I search for the Lord of the Blind.

6. "Stark Weather"
Lyrics copyright 2000 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

I see a living lie stretched out before me miles and miles
Gray fields on either side, abandoned grain, rippling tide
I am a particle of undreamable size
watching my pearl of infinite price grow desultory dark inside
With two fingers I reach out and switch off the light
above the book slid to one side of your hands and your sleeping eyes

Headlights rise and fall on Highway 20
The porch swing creaks and splinters tear
Wheat stalks whisper in my mind
After all this time and fading,
only memory knows this house was blue
the blue we chose of all the shades
Somebody should have covered that little girl's eyes
and warned her that the world ends when the bleeding comes

I can feel stark weather coming
My fingers ache that certain way
I can feel stark weather coming
'cause this glass of water in my hand
would sound so good if I threw it hard
a burst of shards
I can feel stark weather coming
My fingers ache that certain way

She said that from time to time you'll bleed
We are the ones who bleed but do not die
All your life you'll have to try to hide it
Clean clothes in the wind hung out to dry
When no one's looking, sit behind the wheel
See how the highway disappears in the bottom of the sky
No matter what, just keep your mouth shut
It's all on him. You're just along for the ride.

7. "Davenport"
Lyrics copyright 2000 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

The black road leads, I walk on my knees
to the church where the bell rings for me
small in the distance but unreal within,
the house of sovereignty draws me in
We are old and lingering, small and blue,
shining and sweet with the care of so many hands,
carved in mahogany my pew, the door
stands open and no one lately has seen the key.

The road leads on, strung with wires.

Can I stand out on your edge and play the wind,
all my strength obscured by yours
and contemplate the deep decide,
watched by your guards in single line
Climbers clinging to your cliff take care
where you pound the ground, your
rooftop shelter’s peeling free in splinters
hand hewn shingles polished
ready to give way

Early morning, she called to tell me of her dream,
that he appeared, after all this time,
the green sleeves of his sweater pulled down over his hands,
and she held him, and kissed him, and cried, and he asked her
what would she wear that day.
He asked if she would wear that shirt she always wore,
that she liked so much, and it made her cry harder and she
said, “O honey, you’ve been gone so long...I don’t have that shirt anymore!”
He doesn’t understand how long it’s been.
His eyes turned sad and wondering and that’s when she woke up.

I said come down and see me soon.
In Olympia this time of year you can probably see your breath.
Come down and see me and we’ll go to Davenport.
Take down the shingles, mix the paint
with colors from the clusters growing round,
each year the crops and wild things sing around the doors unafraid
of blackness, or smoky air or a wrenching hand armed with a blade.
There’s a beach no wider than a sidewalk and water there to catch your tears.

He’s not coming home,
but we’re forgetting
the revolution till he gets back.

8. "Synaesthesia"
Lyrics copyright 2001 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

You can taste and feel the silence
at 3 a.m. eternal
I sniff the air to see if your thoughts are left behind.
A raindrop met a rose-gold mote of sunset
as the day-doors closed once more
darkness fell on the corridor.

There should be a waiting period
before our eyes meet and I touch you,
just to be sure I'm not insane
before I arm myself.
I'm a woman who can hear the screams of lives that ended on the rails.
The rose-gold light goes out,
and I taste gun-metail gray.

I hear your eyes and taste your words
and smell your skin and see your memory.
The third fall off the cliff is hardest --
lucky me, I never seem to die.

Who or what did this to you?
Give me names and tell me true
Give me names and I promise you
I will devote myself to their utter destruction.

9. "Cellular Hill"
Lyrics copyright 2001 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

I've climbed to the top of Cellular Hill
on a night of granite cold.
Blown by the wind I am in free-fall
with no idea where I'll land.
Runway lights spread out below
I made my flight, good my escape, and now I call
Give me your voice, my only comfort in the cold

That ring around my finger's gone
That tender place will fill with blood and warmth unknown
before the stone, the tiger's eye,
moss agate in the shade
I had a heart before
open the freezer door
This wind cuts through my clothes
Give me your voice

In an empty baseball field
howling at the sky, I call your name
This empty universe contracts
sunlight is milky gray
I wish you remembered holding me
'cause I'll remember holding you
Give me your voice

There's silence now on Cellular Hill
Every blade of grass is still
but I remember every word
and the kids with skateboards know me well
I hope the spirit that possessed you
will overtake some other man
When I meet him, we'll meet again
Give me your voice

10. "Go Home"
Lyrics copyright 2001 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

We could fly together, with our things
in a dilapidated plane
that shudders with each cross-wind.
With fists balled up see me
take in the rising landscape, flat and green,
the engine falters
and the creatures of this land smell my blood, and lick their lips.

I've done what I can.
The problem is, your every breath brings me
a flood of words and striking imagery.
That hook is set so deep in me
I gaze at it from a distance.
Left unattended long enough I will forget it's there,
as flesh, and veins, and skin,
and other pleasant things
heal over it, and obscure it from my view.

For the love of God, Montresor,
wavering in my gaze I see
the bricks ascending one by one.
Soon I'll lose sight of the outside world, but I don't care.
Intoxicated by my own blood,
you see my blood's turned into wine.
Hand me that plumb line.
If my fate is prison
let there be no flaws in it.

11. "John Mockingbird"
Lyrics copyright 2001 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

A man in black answered your door
I thought I'd seen his face before
across the street from the bookshop
before it flashed into flame
He had your eyes, your voice,
your smile, but inexplicably
his gloves lay on the table by my door three towns away
You opened his mouth and he said, "Follow me..."

And that man who held my hand
heard people who weren't there
So softly, and it's over so soon
John Mockingbird sings to the damned

There was a line around the block
at the Powell Street turnaround
of people who forgot
their cable car and only stared
at this man, who stood apart
and watched while crews rolled in
with hoses to put out the burning books.

12. "Plaquemine Brulée"
Lyrics copyright 2001 Polly Moller/Silver Wheel Music

Chains of iron, chains of gold
A humid day dissolves to dusk
Like doves unfolding wings that glow
it's Magnolia Marie and her white gloves.

So silent and afraid to move
your spine has left a mark like veins
on the rough rock.
Approaching softly I hear the clinking of a chain.

How did I win the right
to watch over you tonight?
Your life is in my hands
while a breeze as light as thought
cools me where I stand.
You grip your chains and your eyes are wet.
I should have brought you some water
but you see all this water is mine
for the moccasins doing their dance under the footbridge.
Sensing something coming your eyes close tight.
As my shadow falls across you
there's a scraping and a moan.

You're not a killer and neither am I
until provoked
and it takes more than childish spite
to make me bare my claws.
Like a petal as it falls
my lips brush yours --
o beauty, how you shake.

Could this boulder sink
or the sun beat down
I turn my back and leave you
to whatever may devour you next.
If only you had heard one word I poured into your mind.
Chains of iron, chains of gold.