Dido's Lament from Bird Sounds by Cold Snake

The hammer stopped hitting rocks the day the ship pulled in the dock
the ringing that the raising of the mighty city made was laid away
on the day that the queen of the land walked away,
hand in hand with the man who had landed.

Till one day, as you know, for it's how the story goes
he went away, he went away, in an underhanded way,
yeah she said, "Stay,"but he went anyway
and as she watched his ship rolling out of the bay, she called

"Hay!"
Hay!
"Straw"
Straw!
"Sticks"
Sticks!
"Fire"
Fire!

And she built herself a pyre and she laid on it and burned,
yeah she burned, yeah she burned,
yeah she burned, yeah she burned,
lesson learned?

If you aspire to be something rather higher
than a queen on a pyre on fire
lock the docks, guard the sea, build your city
sit alone on your throne, let the hammer ring on stone.

• Experimental
• devotional
• folk
• punk
• spoken word
• Laramie