New Song: You Don't Look Back

[the_gwenzilliad]

This song surprised me by making me cry when I performed it. I am quite a seasoned performer, and I really, really don't cry onstage. It was ... odd.

Lyrics below the cut tag.



You Don’t Look Back

The lightning and the afterclap
The aftershock of rain
A dozen nights alone
Beneath a blanket sewn from pain
The crashing roll of thunder
Tells the tale of summer’s end
And all the roads that once were straight
Find branches, forks, and bends

You don’t look back
When the vessel leaves the harbour
Don’t look back
When the taxi leaves the kerb
You don’t look back
When the ones you love are leaving
If you watch them go
The sailors know
The waves will take them whole

A glimmer in the mirror
The corner of the eye
The fairy dust of every day
And dreams where people fly
The twilight sweep of darkness
Drains the fantasies of men
And closes in around them like
The ire of absent friends

You don’t look back (etc)

My mother by the window
My sister in the car
The tears of every leaving loss
And every fallen star
Above the din of crying girls
Of widows dressed in black
The sailors sing the cruel refrain:
“You should not have looked back.”

You don’t look back (etc)

Br:
The poison thought
The superstition calls
The notion taught
The malediction falls
An instinct foiled
An urge opposed
Human nature spoiled
Weaknesses exposed
What if I can’t bear to look away?
What if I watch everyone go away?

You don’t look back (etc)

Take me back to better days
Before the frowzy weight
Of ritual and sacrament
Turned all the roads from straight
I did not see my father go:
I knew he must be there.
And though I’ve never seen him since
I see him everywhere

You don’t look back (etc)