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lyrics
The drought was written in our children;
Starvation stitched into their skin.
Our hopes for them were growing colder, and our world was growing thin.
The old dark ways had never left us.
We read the writing in the loam:
That seven messengers be sent to bring the wandering harvest home.
Someone to fill the sky with clouds again,
Someone to raise the barley high;
Someone to turn the fruit trees green again;
Someone to bring us back the rye.
So seven boys and girls were chosen,
By lots, according to our law,
And my youngest girl – my Abigail – she drew the seventh straw.
And then it happened, and was over:
Seven small graves in the fields.
And we watched the signs and wondered what their sacrifice would yield.
Now there is water in the wells again,
And there are rain clouds in the sky.
There are blossoms on the trees again,
But there are faces in the rye.
We sowed the seeds in sadness; they sprouted as we grieved
We hear our children’s laughter in the rustling of the leaves
Walking through the fields, we feel them catching at our sleeves,
But when we turn to catch them, they fade back into the green.
For three years now, our crops have flourished,
And the wounds have slowly healed;
We lie awake at night and listen to the singing in the fields.
And when we go with scythes to cut them,
We see the bargain we have made –
The stalks cry murder, and bleed drops of blood, that beads upon our blades.
My older children sprout like barley stalks.
My kitchen table’s piled high.
We break our bread and think of Abigail,
Among the faces in the rye.
Now seven years have come and vanished,
And our fields are dry once more.
The clouds are thinner every morning, and the drought is at our door.
Today the fields are full of families
Long lines of farmers and their wives:
I lead my children through the silent farms,
My new-born daughter cradled in my arms,
Toward where the elders weep and mutter dirges while they’re sharpening their knives.
credits
from The Monster Songs,
released November 5, 2016
Music and Lyrics by Toby Mulford
