Joanna Newsom - What We Have Known lyrics

The tadpole buoyant as basalt The seahorse horsing in a**ault The owlet in his greenery The narwhal in his cup of sea They all believe They all believe But collusion bleeds through back alleys From parapets that end on feet When one is weak they discreetly meet They throw the bones into the street And they progress And we retreat And all the books our fathers wrote Are in the middle of the road Little by little we implode History brittle, brown and broke We can't remember what was spoke So we stare in wonder at the smoke What it begets is born alone We know not now what we have known! Ladies, breathe deep against your whalebones For your children come home made of stone The terror seething sees a way Or like the wheezing of the bay In miniature agonies They travel westward on the breeze Bring us all to our knees The dappled horse, the sorrowed mare With eyes that do not see but stare Beneath boots as black as Malachi He drives a nag into the night Into the night And all the baby boys we've borne With eyes averted from the storm Sent off to die in perfect form We know now what we have known! Satellite photos, rhetoric See how the euphemisms stick And when they come back, broke and burned Those who return have not returned!