The Great Elsewhere - Owen Pallett

Talking, what’s it good for?

Absolutely nothing

Wrestle, let’s wrestle

You can pin me to anything

Thought I saw you in my tea leaves

Thought I saw you in a forest flame

I’ll fill up the silence with the sound of your holy name

Knowledge of the sea-ways, knowledge of how the water flows

Whoever coined the phrase has never had to brave the snow

I climbed the shroud to the top-sail and I peeked through the glass

The curvature bisected by a wintry mizzen mast

The scar upon my stomach, I call it my Flying V

And every time I show it, I can feel your eyes on me

How many islands will surrender to the blunderbuss?

And how long must we sail before you show your face to us?

Followed him out to the end of the pier

«Don't come any closer,» he cried, «I am afraid

Of the man I’ll become if I lay my

Life down for a people who I don’t even care for.»

Face to his face, I put my

Hand into his and I tried to tell him, «No

I’ve seen his work upon the panes of cathedrals

In the sweat of the workers and the flight of the seagulls.»

My words were drowned out by the sound

Of the motors and rowers, the ship as it ran aground

And from the trees came a thousand soldiers

I went down on my knees with a spear in my shoulder

About face, about face, I swam back

To the Victoria.

I shiver with the

Memory, memory of the island dwellers

And the indifferences of the Storyteller