“Thin Shadows”
by Nate Marshall

Where are you dear brother of mine, of mine?
Where are you dear brother of mine?

I have heard your cries echoing faintly
through the darkest deep caverns little footsteps are beating.
I can seen your brown freckles and sweet velvet eyes,
your wild blonde hair, the new gap in your smile.
Then my eyes open to ghostly hollow halls,
and I see thick jungles of reason and fires of greed,
dense webs of regret growing rampant like weeds,
a mad spiraling force-field between you and me.
Lady Macbeth’s in the castle, her head is on backward;
she says nothing, then sudden, turns sharp to me where I stand
and casts an evil smile at the blood on my hand.

Where are you kid sister of mine, of mine?
Where are you baby sister of mine?

A gentle wind ruffles the soft velvet curtains,
by a barren cold cradle wind chimes are clanging.
A mysterious vulture is hysterically laughing
with rabid eyes glaring, on false olive branch nesting.
There’s blood on the tracks way back thirty years long now
a life lost to one is a world lost to us all. 
So I’m on a bridge of the present, a bonfire burns far below.
False fears weigh so heavy and they’re chained to my neck,
so I recklessly toss them to the flames without fear
and watch as the slack disappears.

Where are you dear parents of mine, of mine?
Where are you sweet parents of mine?

I’ve buried black guilt in a deep dirty grave,
locked in a box, out of sight, out of mind,
and the stone that remains says “the slain had no name,”
but we’ll all feel the pain of cold steel on the brain.
Now I seen magazines promise new revolutions:
lipstick, Capri pants and staples in stomachs. 
Yeah business is business and the one goal profit;
keep them hungry and horny, siphon the pockets.
Then my beating heart burst and left some statistics,
millions and millions packed away in my attic.
I probably don’t want to hear me; I speak for souls without lips. 
You shout that my coat must hang in the closet,
but that don’t legitimize the heartbreak in my eyes-
thin shadows are sewn, gold roses in stone,
thin shadows are sewn, gold roses in stone.