Buttons

(album: Memories & Dust - 2007)

In my mind not enough birds have died
In the shadow of this once cast stone
And I'm not unwell, but I'm ill at ease
With all the buttons still left to sew
Through needles' eyes see me sharper than I see myself
So you should stitch me in to stop me from bleeding

And education can be fickle I think
Sometimes the more you learn
The more you lose a sense of what you think you know
About the buttons still left to sew
And I'm outside myself more and more these days
So you should stitch my skin to stop me from bleeding
All over this fresh song and I
Acknowledge all the corners and all the freshly painted walls
That bear no former scars
Since they're patched up and over now
But I was born of miners and I'm designed to chip away
Tunnel into the dark

But why must it always come down to some unseen contender?
I don't know
When hatchlings all we are, just battling the whitewash
Birds above, sharks below
Though I feel empathy towards the ones who threaten me
I'd still leave them soft-shelled to the beaks of crows

But every now and then a tempest blows
And the veneer I keep it comes unsewn
But will you ever read me well
I can only assume so
I am buoyant like a flotsam man
Relegated by the waves to land
They dry me like a brittle bone
Paraded like a polished stone

Why must it always come down to some unseen contender?
I don't know
When hatchlings all we are, just battling the whitewash
Birds above, sharks below
Though I feel empathy towards the ones who threaten me
I'd still leave them soft-shelled to the beaks of crows

So why must it always come down to some unseen contender?
I don't know
When hatchlings all we are, just battling the whitewash
Birds above, sharks below
Though I feel empathy towards the ones who threaten me
I'd still leave them soft-shelled to the beaks of crows

And that's what you ought to know
I'd see them smashed on the reefs below