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The Death of Billy Jensen

by Spiral

/
1.
He was born from red dust / and the dying breath of thorny plants / He eats the silence between words / and digests a new language / He was brimming with dark water / and drowning a child / He moved across the land slowly / and shat a twisted scar / His heart bends like a flailing arm / and snaps like a dry twig / His face is fluid like a flashing grin / and gouged like volcanic flow / His arms bulge like clogged barrels / and fire like shattered pistons / His legs drag like flippers on land / and swim like broken motors / He’s calling out across the land / and chocking down his worthless words / He’s spitting out bile and machinery / and building his corrupted dream
2.
Dirt 06:23
Dirt: He was born from red dust / and the dying breath of thorny plants / He eats the silence between words / and digests a new language / He was brimming with dark water / and drowning a child / He moved across the land slowly / and shat a twisted scar / His heart bends like a flailing arm / and snaps like a dry twig / His face is fluid like a flashing grin / and gouged like volcanic flow / His arms bulge like clogged barrels / and fire like shattered pistons / His legs drag like flippers on land / and swim like broken motors / He’s calling out across the land / and chocking down his worthless words / He’s spitting out bile and machinery / and building his corrupted dream
3.
It’s impossible not to wonder / what you were going to say / Would you last words, have changed my mind / But I never gave you the chance / Your words left half finished / You were licking your chops / and tasting the flowing honey/ with your silver tongue / bought and sold again and again / at the pawn shop on fourth street / Dusk brings a dark gray / that shrouds the lies / of your passing in mystery / Frozen forever / in one pose / Your mouth open
4.
5.
Everyday is the same / A repeat of a life lived 30 years before / Centipedes and scorpions lift my fat unused body off my bed / and take me to the porch / where I watch the desert writhe and move / Everyday is the same / except today / A small dark shape at the edge of the horizon / During breakfast I’m intrigued / she blocks the sun / her dress hangs on her thin frame and scrapes the dust / By afternoon I know it’s her / I tap my fingers on the porch / and send a million insects to meet her / cockroaches and ants / centipedes and scorpions / the desert is a moving carpet / but it doesn’t slow her down / her birds swoop down / and pick the sand clean / By evening I’m all alone / Every slimy friend I ever had is dead / she steps onto the porch and stands over me / I can’t move / She bends down / and points her finger at my face / like a gun / then sticks the barrel in my mouth / her finger secretes a viscous liquid / that tastes like honey / I can’t stop sucking
6.
Honey drips like milk / down my open throat / and the sun is a halo / framing her smiling face / This nectar will kill me / my body will rot into the porch / and all my insects will come for the feast / Her smile is so sweet / today my love is like an earthquake / rumbling beneath the surface
7.
There’s one last chance / to survive this / I have to bite down / break away / and force her to stay / My unused limbs crack and pop / My lungs fill with a newborn howl / The earth is my womb / Dirt is my mother’s milk / The flowing honey in my throat / is a pathway that leads to the past / I’ve looked so long / for what I wanted / and it was always right here
8.
Cripple 03:41
Transcript from the Jensen Tapes: Well There was four of us and we were looking for something to do. Well, we happened across Rick Hansen and things got a little out of hand. He was deformed, but not in the normal way. He was born with little stubby arm things sticking out of his back. Well, you know how kids are. None of us really understood him or tried to get to know him. Sometimes one of the parents would try to make their kid play with him, but is always turned out bad. Rick just learned to be happy by himself. Anyway, as he got older his deformity got worse. The arms grew longer and longer. When he was young he kept them folded on his back and covered them with a coat. Well eventually they got way too big for that. His mom had to cut holes in the backs of all his shirts. By the time he got to middle school the arms started growing feathers and started looking like wings. It got harder and harder for him to sit the longer his wings got, so he had to sit on his desk, instead of his chair. About a year later rumors started going round that he was able to fly, and apparently he had taken Becky Stevens up with him. Well it was around this time that we met up with him. We were just any young boys, always out looking for fun and some way to relieve the boredom of small town life. I wish to God we hadn’t met up with him that day. Well anyway, we surrounded him and started taunting him. I told him to fly for us and the boys joined in with me. We were all acting tough, like his flying was somehow disgusting and we just wanted to make fun of him, but honestly, I wanted to see it. He told us that he was deformed and we should leave him alone, but that was his mom talking through him. She loved him, but also wanted him to leave her be. You could see it in her eyes. Well we decided to rough him up a little bit, since he wouldn’t fly for us. Well he was built for flight, you see. We didn’t realize that. His bones were all hollow and brittle. We only roughed him up a little, but by the time we was done, Rick was lying on the ground with his arms and legs bent in all unnatural ways. When we realized what we’d done we all took off running. I was more scared then I’ve ever been. We all came up with a lie that we was down at the river all day and went our separate ways. Rick died in the hospital a week later. He never told anyone that we was the ones that did it. I’m not proud of what I did, but we was just kids. We didn’t know what we was doing.
9.
10.
The sun runs like liquid down the red sky / and paints my porch with burning sunset / Her hair hangs down and obscures her eyes / but I can see her small mouth / lips bent in a loving smile / She’s happy to be here with me / and I will never see these things again / Wind patterns in the desert sand / Tumbleweed shadows elongated by the sun / Her smiling face / I’ll miss everything / Centipedes and scorpions / But most of all I’ll miss / The great yellow orb / that rises and sets over my wrecked house / Day after day / No more clocks / No more Cars / No more music / No more quiet / No more stores / No more school / No more TV / No more radio / No more phone / No more practice / No more friends / No more love / No more hate / No more terror / No more joy / No more you / No more me
11.
Mother 06:42
It was hot outside / The sun scorched the landscape white / You were standing by the car / with your arms full / I put my small hand in yours / and we walked to the house / Mother everything is coming up / Have you seen what she’s done / All my substance is spilling out on the floor / Mother she looks so much like you / I’m happy to go / The sun painted window frames / across the walls / and you put down everything / just to pick me up / and carry me to the kitchen / to help me wash my hands / Mother this is my only memory of you

about

Meet the Jensen’s, your not so average family living out somewhere in the sprawling desert of the west. The Jensen’s lineage is not traced like yours or mine, instead the family has lived for generations birthing exact genetic copies of themselves. Every generation the youngest Jensen (Billy Jensen’s little sister) kills all of her brothers one by one. After each kill she becomes miraculously pregnant and rebirths the brother she’s just killed. After each of her brothers have been reborn she gives birth to herself, her head caving in as her younger self crowns and so on, until the entire family is renewed. Because of this unique situation Billy is the only Jensen that remembers both his Mother and his Sister. Each Jensen contains a unique gift. Billy controls insects and rats, His little sister controls birds, and their brother can revive any type of machinery with a mere touch.

credits

released July 20, 2010

Recorded and mixed at Frontroomstudios by Chris Boat and Aaron Frale.

The front cover photograph was taken by Alvaro Sanchez-Montanes. Visit his site here: www.alvarosh.es

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Spiral Albuquerque, New Mexico

Chris, Aaron, and Bill, the three constant members of Spiral are desert born. They played childish games amongst dunes and cacti and now, their music breathes sand.

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