The Mountain Goats

[fox69]

"Tianchi Lake"

"Tianchi Lake"



Children by the water banks
Laughing long and loud
Changbai's high, fine western peaks
Just beneath the clouds

Currents in the water
Churning in their course
Body of a sea lion
Head just like a horse

Preacher in the soft, brown sand
Begins to speak his peace
High wings in the treetops
Low flying winter geese

No one taking pictures
Everybody still
And then the water sought its course again
The way that waters will

No one at the lakeside now
Moon up in the sky
Night birds in the dragon spruce
Moaning long and high

Backstroking on the surface
Moonlight on its face
Floats the Tianchi monster
Staring into space

Out around the temple now
Narcissus in bloom
Sensors packed with sandalwood
Send smoke into the room

Children in the sand outside
On their hands and knees
Sketching pictures all day long
Of stranger things than these

 

[fox69]

"Tollund Man"

"Tollund Man"



I was sitting at the edge of the marsh
When the council came to bring me the news
They handed me a bowl of cooked wild grasses
And they gave me the ceremonial shoes

Goodbye young Danish women
Goodbye Danish sky
Goodbye cold air, I am going away
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

 

[fox69]

"Toolshed"

"Toolshed"



Out by the tracks where the sunflowers grow high and fine,
Three sets of tracks: Steve and Rochelle's and the last one's mine.
Guy with a hat down in the weeds in a carboard box
Secrets to keep.
Records to seal up.
Kittens weighed down with rocks.
There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer.

Back at the school everyone looks like the enemy.
And we couldn't sleep and i had the voices inside of me.
Steve and Rochelle and me down the well all semester long.
Back to the tracks to try and make peace,
But the box was gone, was gone.
There was a little toolshed where the sad man made us suffer.

 

[fox69]

"Transcendental Youth"

"Transcendental Youth"



Cold through broken baseboards.
I despise this town.
Snow on the sunroof,
Two stories down.
Hold hands,
Wish the snow away.
Rise in the darkness,
Of the gathering day.

Sing.
Sing for ourselves alone.
Speak into,
The microphone.

Cedar smudge our headbands,
And take to the skies.
Soar ever-upwards,
On air gone black with flies.
Shroud ourselves in the cosmos.
Let the music play.
Bright star of the morning,
Shine on his rising way.

Sing.
In the night.
In the nameless dark.
Father long gone,
But we bear his mark.

Learn some secrets,
Never tell.
Stay sick,
Don't get well.

Clutch those broken headboards.
Ride the highest wave.
Dusky diamonds shining in the far depths of the cave.
Try to explain ourselves,
Babble on and on.
By the time you receive this, we'll be gone.

Sing.
Sing high.
While the fire climbs.
Sing one for the old times.

 

[fox69]

"Transjordanian Blues"

"Transjordanian Blues"



This church is rotten from the top down.
This church is rotten from the top down.
But i, i am going to clean house tonight.
And it's going to go back into the earth it rose from.

These walls can't keep the world at bay.
No, these walls can't keep the world at bay.
Our time, our time is limited and precious.
But this place, this place is limitless and pernicious.

Would you all just follow me out into the open?
Leave your coats and handbags, damn it all.
Can't you see the floors are smoking?

This church is not long for this world.
This church is not long for this world.
And if you're wondering who to blame,
I want to praise his name with songs and feasting.
Follow me to the open field
Where the truth will be revealed if you're really listening.

Hosannah, hosannah, i am saved by the blood of the lamb.
One day when i was lost, he died on that cross,
And i am saved by the blood of the lamb

 

[fox69]

"Treetop Song"

"Treetop Song"



All along the interstate
the palm trees were calling out to me
the line of them stretched fown the highway forever
as far as I could see
I waited til the sun was coming up
light morning traffic and a cool spring breeze
I heard the old voices calling down
from the tops of the trees

when I got up to the top, my head got light
for a minute everything in the world was alright
I saw the next tree just 10 feet away
give or take a few feet I guess
then I pushed off into the air with all my might
headed out into the center of the morning light
I knew that I was gonna make it
the new tree hardly shook to acknowledge my arrival
I knew that I would be alright

 

[fox69]

"Trick Mirror"

"Trick Mirror"



Seventeen years ago
They told me to teach you everything I know
I let the fire rain down
Rain down

Watched it flare up inside his heart
Saw it tearing him completely apart
Head to toe
I know

And blood will run
Through the streets of Rome today
And roll across the ocean

Fourteen years ago tonight
Watched him tearing through the garden, killing everything in sight
I let my curiosity
Get the best of me

I saw the sourceless anger eating at him from inside
No one around him to stem the rising tide
Evil from his head down to his feet
Quinine's bitter, sugar's sweet

And blood will run
Through the streets of Rome today
And roll across the ocean

 

[fox69]

"Twin Human Highway Flares"

"Twin Human Highway Flares"



You turned to me and asked me if I'd always be your boy
As we drove across the river into western Illinois
And on the railroad bridge, half a mile of solid steel
Wheels were spitting out sparks, scraping at the rails

Wind in your hair, alright
Sunset spilling through the rear window
Your white t-shirt hugging your shoulders
Beaded with sweat

On the day that I become so forgetful
That all of this melts away
I will burn all the calendars that counted the years down
To such a worthless day

As we walked across the parking lot towards the motel office
We were walking with a benediction on us
Light was everywhere, the building stood against the sky
Like a monument to desperation, two floors high

A mile and a half from the river
We went back to the car to get our overnight bags
Sunset spilling through your earrings
All over your body

When we shut the motel room door behind us
We knew we'd hit the motherlode
On the day that I forget you
I hope my heart explodes

 

[fox69]

"Two Thousand Seasons"

"Two Thousand Seasons"



How have we come to be mere mirrors to annihilation?
Whom do we aspire to reflect our people's death?
For whose entertainment shall we sing our agony?
One hopes that the destroyers aspiring to extinguish us
Will suffer conciliatory remorse at the sight of their own fantastic success
The last imbecile that dreams such dreams is dead
Killed by the saviors of his dreams

How have we come to be mere mirrors to annihilation?

 

[fox69]

"Unmasked!"

"Unmasked!"



Rain beats down, down on the outer walls
Down on the skylight, where the streetlights
Shine like unquenchable coals
And I’m up high, trying to say goodbye
The only way I know how
Crude and graceless
Peeking through the eyeholes
Seeing the real you

And just after midnight
When it feels like it's getting late
I will reveal you
I will reveal you

Crowd's half-gone, just a few hangers-on
Come to see me finally tear through the stitching at last
And you don't care, you look almost relieved down there
Like you're free, like you can breathe now
Like they've sawn off your cast
Just one more sleeper to see through

And by way of honoring
The things we once both held dear
I will reveal you
I Will reveal you

Cast of thousands
But we were the real two
And when I'm alone
Before a mirror late at night
I will reveal you
I will reveal you