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What We Have Known
Joanna Newsom
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The tadpole buoyant as basalt
The seahorse horsing in assault
The owlet in his greenery
The narwhal in his cup of sea
They all believe
They all believe
But collusion bleeds through back allies
From parapets that end on feet
When one is weak they discreetly meet
They throw the bones into the street
And they progress
And we retreat
And all the books our fathers wrote
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Are in the middle of the road
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Little by little we implode
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History brittle, brown and broke
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We can't remember what was spoke
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So we stare in wonder at the smoke
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What it begets is born alone
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We know not now what we have known!
Ladies, breathe deep against your whalebones
For your children come home made of stone
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The terror seething sees a way
Or like the wheezing of the bay
In miniature agonies
They travel westward on the breeze
Bring us all to our knees
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The dappled horse, the sorrowed mare
With eyes that do not see but stare
Beneath boots as black as Malachi
He drives a nag into the night
Into the night
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And all the baby boys we've borne
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With eyes averted from the storm
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Sent off to die in perfect form
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We know now what we have known!
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Satellite photos, rhetoric
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See how the euphemisms stick
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And when they come back, broke and burned
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Those who return have not returned!
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