
Date of issue: 04.02.2016
Record label: Big Scary Monsters
Song language: English
Red Cow |
Before the Red Sea flood beneath a cornhusk dawn |
We bid the Elkhorn run to a locomotive psalm |
Until the pale horse comes along a rail withdrawn |
Clanging loudward on, clanging loudward on |
We bid the Elkhorn run until the red cow comes |
I was a steadfast son, with thoughts and hooves divided |
And on the arid ground of thirsty Zion’s hill |
Cold waters tumbled down where the staff of Moses fell |
What Pharaoh spell, what picture holds us now? |
Behold the snake of brass, the wind was blowing backwards |
Behold a golden calf, blighted leaves of Law |
O for the land we knew before the frogs withdrew |
In the fragrant pomegranate blooms where the tender locust flew |
Behind the milk-white tombs, behind the milk-tank cars |
We passed the North Platte yard on silver tracks unguarded |
Out past the sambar herds, out to the outcast birds |
In the rust of open wagons, Lo! |
the Blessed Virgin’s likeness |
We watched the green figs fall from the Nebraska sky |
How much were even passive things responsive to our watchful eye! |
And let there be no doubt: so many figs and pictures hold us |
In the wells of livestock vans with shells and garden sands |
Iron mixed with oxygen as per the laws of chemistry and chance |
A shape was roughly human, it was only roughly human |
Apparition eyes apparition eyes Knock Apparition Knock eyes apparition eyes |
Was he a violent man? |
Well, he had his genocidal moments… |
Or penned by fiction’s hand? |
To whom could that phrase not apply? |
How much are even lifeless sounds responsive to our listening ear! |
What Pharoah now, what Paroah now, or Jew or picture holds us here? |
Name | Year |
---|---|
January 1979 | 2003 |
In A Sweater Poorly Knit | |
Silencer | 2001 |
The Fox, The Crow And The Cookie | 2008 |
Julia (or, ‘Holy to the LORD’ on the Bells of Horses) | 2018 |
My Exit, Unfair | 2003 |
Every Thought A Thought Of You | 2008 |
Grist for the Malady Mill | 2015 |
Torches Together | 2003 |
Gentlemen | 2001 |
Pale Horse | 2015 |
Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt | 2001 |
Fox's Dream of the Log Flume | 2015 |
Elephant in the Dock | 2015 |
Bullet To Binary | 2001 |
The Soviet | 2003 |
Seven Sisters | 2003 |
Tie Me Up! Untie Me! | 2003 |
Nine Stories | 2015 |
Disaster Tourism | 2003 |