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Land of the Cross

from tales from the forsaken art house by Bill White

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lyrics

I believe in women disguised as swans Poets who ride on asses
I don’t believe in neat divisions Of people into races and classes
I believe in the fairies that light the forest And mermaids dancing on water
I don’t believe the sins of the family Should be shouldered by the daughter
They don’t believe in dragons They don’t believe in queens
The only thing they follow Is the price of gasoline
For them, the sun is a ball of fire The moon a piece of rock
And the wisdom of Confucious Is nothing but idle talk

Im going down To the valley of sunrise
Where there is neither Gain nor loss
Looking for Sentient dreamers
Who still abide In the land of the cross

I believe we shall spring forth anew From the garden of delights
And it is only the day that dies At the dying of the light
Involuntary twitches they call behavior Mutterings of unbelief
I don’t even hear a whisper Of love, or hope, or grief
I was taking to BF Skinner, Cardinal Law and Madeline O’Hare
I’ve never heard so much stupidity Blowing down from the Harvard stairs
They find the same anatomy Beneath every petticoat
Can you imagine eating a cookie And getting a bone stuck in your throat?
Shakespeare showed me what I was Matthew taught me who I could be
All I learned at Harvard Were the names of the seven seas

I’m leaving this place Of sorrow and loss
To try to find my way back to the land of the cross
In Western lands Projections of man Deface the faces of dreams
He delightful fields of Evermore Turn dark with anxieties
Miraculous beasts of fable are given to the butcher’s hand
Magic is nuclear fission and God a slaughtered lamb

I tried to find an honest woman In the brothel of democracy
But like the letter of the law Each one of them failed me
Not to say there aren’t a lot of nice people In these split-level company shacks
But when you contract a loan with Railroad Jim There’s only one way of paying him back

So here’s to Hamlet and Jesus and jean Valjean To Baptiste and Billy the Kid
If the legend moves us more than the truth Then the truth is less than what we did
So let’s raise a glass to those who are gone Whether or not they were ever even here
And I’ll say goodbye to the Western lands and hello to the new frontier

My love waits there In the land of the cross
In the land of the cross She is watching the sea
Wedding bells are ringing In the land of the cross
In the land of the cross They are ringing for me
We shall be together In the land of the cross
In the land of the cross United we shall be

Im going down To the valley of sunrise
Where there is neither Gain nor loss
Looking for Sentient dreamers
Who still abide In the land of the cross

credits

from tales from the forsaken art house, released October 16, 2012
written and performed by Bill white on Garageband

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