April Sixteenth

from Dutiful Heroes by Lost in a State

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$1 USD or more
Buy the Full Digital Album

lyrics

APRIL SIXTEENTH

April Sixteenth, on April Sixteenth,

That’s when I go, down Shade of Death Road,

The people above, the people below,

To whom will I go, down Shade of Death Road?

A static vision of steel city,

Buses ferry the aggrieved to terminals

Piping yellow-black bars of music.

A pearl of stars begins sliding slowly, then faster and faster,

Down somebody’s beautiful shoulder.

April Sixteenth, on April Sixteenth,

That’s when the teeth, fall out in my hand,

Undone by boulder, or grain of sand,

Oh how will I go, down Shade of Death Road?

A red ant walks briskly, carrying a berry.

It is puny, panting, unaware of titanic forces

Sliding about its periphery, forces so much larger

And more conscious as to be completely ignorant of its existence.

The small ones continue ad infinitum. They must press on.

April Sixteenth, on April Sixteenth,

That’s what the dream, it said unto me,

But how did it know, and how did it see

Just when I would go, down Shade of Death Road?

No man is not a man is a man.

There are forces beyond our control,

To be unlocked, titillated, agitated

By whiskey, failure, happenstance and exceptionalism.

No man is a man is not a man.

April Sixteenth, on April Sixteenth,

That’s when I leave, my full-hearted bride,

Please say she’ll find me, on that bright other side,

Say so as I go, down Shade of Death Road.

The final vision –

The crow’s last, blinded flight into glass.

The low, damp hills and the forest.

The munching chust bugs.

The slow conversion to peopleless steppe,

Cracked and rippled, detached and loving,

That needs your bones to grow.

credits

from Dutiful Heroes, released March 15, 2015

license

about

Lost in a State Portland, Oregon

Lost in a State is the vehicle for the words of Matthew Peipert, a poet based in Portland, Oregon. He creates musical poems with Robin Anthony Coe (guitar) and Martin Cantwell (percussion/effects/production), and his written work has been featured by 3:AM Magazine, Beat the Dust, Dead Sheep, Newtown Literary, Spork Press and Word Riot. For more, go to www.lostinastate.com. ... more