Lyrics: Morgan Eck/Russell Eck
Music: Jared Klein/Russell Eck
Eyes open to blackness
Thorns tear at the skin until it's raw and dripping with gore and anguish
A sun burns far off in the distance
Pinprick of light guiding like moth to a flame,
but it flickers and taunts all
It taunts us all
Such immeasurable distance,
you succumb to the weight of effort required to even turn your eyes northward to it
Feet slipping on broken earth,
you find footing among the serrated landscape of somewhere you are unwelcome
Unwantedβ¦
Condemnatory eyes emerge in the darkness around you
Stony ridges become teeth eager to swallow you whole
You take a step not knowing what is to come
Winds carry judgments that cut straight through like knives
You aren't strong enough, you aren't good enough
You are without a boulder to roll, but the climb seems endless still
You take a step forward
Voices echo in the chamber of your madness
Misguiding under the guise of deliverance
The false pretenses are apparent only in its repetition
There is no salvation for the innocent among the malevolent
Wolf baring fangs as empty promises,
unrequited devotion in maternal absence
You are alone in this and always have been
Ensnared in hopes ripped to shreds by claws
that clutch unearned holiness
Ribboned pages of your life's story, a narrative for the rejected collective
False idols witness hypocrisy in the flesh, eyes blind to atrocities
Mouths gagged by rewritten history,
ears deafened to the cries of forgotten children
But you seek comfort, not smoke and mirrors
Prayers die on lips and turn inward like adrenaline surging and you move again
You move again and again
with adrenaline surging through these powdered bones of aspiration
Shed the skin of yesterday,
soiled by the torment you never asked for but were given
Sun's rays reach out like fingers beckoning,
promises of a warmth unfamiliar
A cure for metastasis in your continuation
A slog, a strain, a burden,
the baggage you hold that you clasp and grasp is unrelenting
You're up against mountains you cannot move but elevation is rising
Clouds move as ghosts far above,
but with each step you feel lighter,
they get closer inside
Waltz of quintessence