Sea Smoke

I drove an ancient copper thorn

into your Red Indian heart

Pulled the cross down and myself

into a hundred weaker parts

Pointed up into the cliffs,

I saw the villains they became

Just an angel and a lion,

spitting fire in my name

Won't be long

We threw the Stygian hypocrites

into the warmest pit of Hell

Down to the violent jet-black delta

where the redwoods rose and fell

I painted all of man's mistakes

inside a giant golden frame

I was a tax collector up until

the spirit spoke my name

In the fog of the graying woods we'd grown

We heard the cedar bulkheads moan

So we replaced it with a field

And now it's scraping up our heels.

And I can hardly move my mouth

To get these hallowed insults out

Past my bear trap jaws into my wandering father's ears

So I'm packing up my tattered thoughts

and swallowing my prayers.

And I'd been too long

in a polished wooden tomb

Should've left some space for you

But I never got my fill of tempting fate

So I sold my spine to the devil-handed dusk

Finally a captain I can trust

He formed a brand new trinity

With the hypocrites and me.