On Laden Shores

The Last Star of Amastris

Track 2 of 4, from Uncle Woe’s sophomore LP, Phantomescence
Released 23/10/2020
© 2020 Packard Black Productions
All Rights Reserved

Written by Rain Fice
Performed and recorded by Rain Fice and Nicholas Wowk, April to July, 2020.
Artwork by Rain Fice

Available for purchase in many fine formats https://unclewoe.bandcamp.com/album/phantomescence

ON LADEN SHORES
…never seen again.

Hold out your head full of light as an offering.
Reach out into whispers caught standin
just beyond the hole in the horizon,
hanging now and filled to overflowing
on your high and endless walls.

Turn round and drift back to the sun.
Committing every piece you hold to memory.
…never seen again.

Empty your hands of the burdens you’re gathering.
Slip through the æther and come out the other side,
having always with you that broken horizon
to put up at home and to fill with closed eyes.

Come down and spill out for us all,
collecting every piece that unfolds into tragedy.
…never seen again.

Spread out your wings in the night,
and fill your lungs with the weight of the abyss
standing just there, before you.
A break in the silence hangs over our endeavours
and drips down onto everything.

“You are dead,” so reads the inscription.
“You are dead and you don’t know.”
…never seen again.

Cast your fortune to the deep.
With nought left but the cold breath of the abyss,
you pass through empty fathoms come beckoning.

Spiral down. Don’t breathe. Close your eyes.
Writhe. Claw, then finally, breathe.

You disembark on laden shores and break uneven ground
and plant a figure there whose shape won’t be discerned in this light.

Lost at sea, ripe with plunderage, and so, weighed down.
Drive this listing vessel to the ground.
…never seen again.

Laid out on broken shores, still now and haunted blue.
Float your way up listless rivers and back to your home,
where they are waiting, and dying,
but you’re never seen again.