[ lyrics: Natalie Merchant & Michael Walsh/music: J.C.Lombardo ]

she borders the pavement
flanks avenues
parades pass white glove attended by
my mother the war

she'll raise a shaft
lift a banner
toss a rose
my mother the war

she's made every effort
to salvage the few
bought fourteen liberty bonds
my mother the war

mother the war

[ lyrics: Natalie Merchant/music: Dennis Drew ]

honor salute and speak
to the corner standing flag
do you remember how the days of school were
indivisible separate worlds
compare contrast
these dreams absurd
placid classroom faces
breathe in the features
of a demographics death map trilogy
children read them well
not to bury 3 of 4 sons
as the likes of chivalry

[ lyrics: Wilfred Owen/music: J.C. Lombardo ]

bent double like old beggars in sacks
knockkneed and cursing or coughing like hags
men marched on sleeping some without boots
fatigue drunken deaf still to the hoots
of breaking gas shells
dropping softly behind
but limped on bloodshod
all went lame all went blind

gas gas quick boys fumbling helmets in time

[ lyrics: Natalie Merchant/music: Robert Buck ]

greta's cedar hope chest
is full of pamphlets
glass shelves of romantic vignettes
a journal laced with sedimentary prose

norma gathers and collects vintage photoplays
hair combs valentines

lillian allows the animals to scratch
leather crack
mail collect in the box coatings peel

agnes veiled cathedral dweller

[ lyrics: Natalie Merchant/music: Steve Gustafson ]

in the cruel garrison of affection
if worth of lore is true
you know the face of a temptress
pit viper

a witch or enchantress
pit viper

with the malign venom of conceit
she tries
civil men
conceal fear
misgivings
when night entreats them
a greater chill sustains
stains her
darkness

[ lyrics: Natalie Merchant & J.C. Lombardo/music: J.C. Lombardo ]

like a weasel in the clover
you tilt toss pop turn over
sit down!
tremble and weave like a moth
by flame deceived
sit down!
spill with your words caught up
dance in your room
slide like you're buttered up
roll back the tomb
sit down!

bolt scuff jilt chase circle riddle
shake in haste
sit down!

frail hinges pivot
on a cases door
commemorative
souvenirs from places
containers change
with each occasion

cellophane encased
displaying paper
certificate
credit years of service
a tool of
central enterprises

the early hope
for permanence the
words the rings
consistency
and social security the
miracles high tragedy

a thought mistaken
for a memory

[ lyrics: Natalie Merchant/music: J.C. Lombardo ]

there were women holding rosaries
on the day manolete died
teenage girls in soft white dresses
standing silent peace respecting
groups of boys held in their hands
the fragments of a shattered idol
the old men with their traditions challenged
refrained from tears

neck neck hook
poles of wood

[ Lombardo/Merchant ]

Oh my dear friend
My dear friend Giorgio
How has this time Breton
Discouraged your liaison with the
Eye styled metaphysical
Incongruous scenarios
Dauntly jaunt about through nostalgic despair
Within childlike renderings
Of a nightmarish recall
"All my images Fragments
I've shored upon my ruins
Pictor classicus sum
I am pure"

[ lyrics: Natalie Merchant/music: J.C.Lombardo & Robert Buck ]

there was light and atomic fission
swelling wind
rising ash
tide of black rain
cement seared shawdow traces
reminiscent of their last commands

instantly one thousand flames arising
ill scent the burning hides surrounding
a settlement debased entirely
enola gay had made a casual delivery