The Sober Scent of Paper

Chains stretch the Great Lake around you

Pull you along by the knots in your hair

It's just like you'd never been there

Cold tooth and ice scattered islands

Faithfully facing the warmth of the sun

All to the quickening dawn

Fever on the thorough-way brow

The sober scent of paper

Teething cries and what the rain hides

Were not enough to save you

Faith is a race from the silence

Widens and swallows you

Head first and whole

Fight through the whitening bones

Secede while you can

While you're able

Sorrow may tap at the root of your song

Light sparks the opening bomb

Fever on the thorough-way brow

The sober scent of paper

Teething cries in what the rain hides

Were not enough to save you

Every ache is dissolved in the brine

And the waves from the bay and then rise

But the shark ridden garden will run dry again