The Mouse Hiding Out In The Lion's Hair

(album: Everything Speaks In Its Own Way - 2012)

Truth is golden
It's not up to me to speak it
Each needs to seek it for themselves and keep the secrets
Me? I fall down beneath it saying that all things are holy
And I'm not trying to show you what nobody could show me
I'm just trying to reach out and stop me feeling lonely
Cause nobody's alone and that will set your soul free
In fact, come here I wanna hold hands and stroll through the cold breeze I wanna tell you about the time I met this old man, mouth full of gold teeth
Now he told me, his whole plan changed when his homeland changed and I was humbled and the thunder rumbled
And his laugh was like a tin can kicked down cobblestones
And they hear his voice in the treetops it sings at me when I'm on my own
He told me "Everybody needs, everybody bleeds but you've got to show peace if you want to know peace"
It was rock 'n roll street beat poetry
I said "I weep for the grief overloading me"
He said "All things happen as they happen, child," he told at me
His words rang rings around me like I was Saturn
He was older, I was younger but we were openly discussing
I told him "I ain't going to stop at nothing" he smiled knowingly
He said "Child, you need to know something," He said "The fire in your belly will eventually be dampened. Your eyes will be broken windows in abandoned houses. You will stand around in the crowded precincts not even wondering what made me sink into the sludge, I fought against for so long, every day will just be another day trying to hold on. You'll sit and get tearful, listening to the old songs but you won't feel the heat you'll only notice when the cold's gone" I was like "Nah man not me, nothing's ever going to stop me" He said "Fine, remember that in due time when you've bent your back for ages trying to make changes you'll realise trying to make a change is dangerous" I said "Change ain't dangerous man change is essential" He said "Change don't come at the end of your pencil. Change comes in each mind that is ready to embrace a new way of seeing things a new way of being in this world" It was me and him sat there in the fleeting wind, a couple minutes passed and we didn't speak a thing and then he said "Don't you see? One day you'll be old like me, and all the things that you hoped you be won't even matter, deep water don't notice the little stone that disturbs its surface, beneath the little ripples it's just surging on I said "But man I was born with a thirst and a purpose big enough to preserve and my verse is strong, all I want to do is rouse souls with the words I'm emerging from more detergent wrongs of these merchant slums I don't pray to the no virgin sun I pray to the burning sun, and I don't suffer no fools who believe that their learning's done, I believe the universe is one and I know that my work is search and run and keep moving, ripping my chest with the lyrics to step on my breath in the city it tickles my flesh in the middle of this whole ridiculous mess, trust they mellifluous yes I keep flowing.
Cause me? I'm half priestess half circus freak, bright eyes and the dirty teeth, yes I'm weak and I'm nervous but I will keep my feet on the kerb I'm the geek who can work a beat, and we can speak till' the morning creeps but you'll never stop me trying to reach for them sprawling peaks, cause I believe they are ours to find" He was like "Alright, now I know for sure you've got the stars inside
Here's a little message for your heart's and mind for your heart's from mine" He told me "In this life of hypertense you must keep burning bright if your light's intense you must never lose sight of what you fight against, you must accept that you can never know what your life has meant and if you write to vent well that's fine but you should write to set alight cement and change time" He said "If you're the type with a light to share you need to know it takes a mighty heart to try hard in the lion's lair when everybody's out for the lion's share you need to be like the mouse hiding out in the lion's hair
That's when he fixed me with a kind of stare I never seen before and then he hobbled away
The night opened her mouth up and swallowed the day
And I sat there on that bench feeling lost in the grey and I swore to myself I would honour every word he had offered my way