I walked abroad in the valley where the lilies grow
But the lilies were the teeth of the soldiers buried low
The wind was a whisper from a throat that was cut
Bleeding the silence into the peasant’s hut
The sun is a shield of the brass and the gold
Beating the mercy out of the young and the old
We call it the quiet
We call it the calm
But it is the fuse hissing in the center of the palm
(Verse)
Shelley saw the masquerade of the anarchy
But I see the copulating of the land and the sea
In a violent rhythm that shakes the bed
Of the river where the water is running the red
You smile at the neighbor and you wave the hand
But the fingers are the spiders in the desert sand
Waiting for the moment to sting and to bite
We are the armies of the ordinary night
Fighting a battle in the grocery aisle
Killing the spirit with the plastic smile
(Chorus)
The peace is a lie that the devil has told
To keep the sheep quiet in the slaughtering fold
The dove is a vulture with a painted white wing
Picking the meat off the bone of the king
There is no truce
There is no pact
Only the brutal and the physical fact
Of the war
Of the war
That rages in the core and the core
(Verse)
You lay down beside me in the linens of white
But I see the battlefield in the failing light
Your skin is the map of the invaded land
I conquer the territory with the heavy hand
I drive the flag into the soft of the thigh
Listening to the surrender of the sigh
It isn’t the love
It is the plunder
I am the lightning and you are the thunder
Of the cannonade
We fuck like the enemies in the trench
Breathing the horror and the sulfur stench
(Bridge)
The West Wind carries the smell of the rot
From the palace to the garden and the plot
The law is a chain that is wrapped in the silk
We are drinking the poison in the mother’s milk
The mystic is blind and the prophet is dumb
Waiting for the falling of the iron thumb
To crush the illusion of the happy day
We are the clay
We are the clay
Molded by the hatred and the decay
(Verse)
I look in your eyes and I see what’s amiss
The betrayal hidden in the Judas kiss
The world is a corpse that is dressed in the lace
A skeleton wearing a beautiful face
We dance on the grave of the history past
How long will the fiction of the safety last?
Before the ground opens to swallow the foot
And we choke on the ashes and the heavy soot
Of the truth
(Outro)
The treaty is broken
The paper is burned
The lesson is rejected and the lesson is spurned
Peace is the war that we fight in the dark
With the tooth and the nail and the shark
Swimming in the blood of the daily routine
It is obscene
It is obscene
And the sky is screaming.