No Man

No Man

[Verse 1] Evening sealed the hillside With a mouth of cold black stone We entered under silence Where no wind had ever flown

There were embers in the hollow There was milk upon the clay And the shadows moved like shoulders At the dying of the day

[Pre-Chorus] I folded up my given name And hid it from the flame For a blade is not the only thing A desperate hand can raise

[Chorus] No man In the dark where the red fire leans No man Where the old stone closes its teeth Let the night take what it can Let the blood dry where it ran I will leave no name behind me I am no man

[Verse 2] One by one the voices Were taken from the air The cave grew full of breathing And the gods were nowhere there

I poured the dark into his cup I watched the mountain sleep Then gave the olive back its fire And drove it inward deep

[Pre-Chorus] Mercy has a narrow door When death has barred the way And sometimes all a soul can keep Is the lie it learns to say

[Chorus] No man In the dark where the red fire leans No man Where the old stone closes its teeth Let the night take what it can Let the blood dry where it ran I will leave no name behind me I am no man

[Bridge] Morning found us under wool With our faces turned to earth The light came thin and silver-pale Like a second, borrowed birth

I should have left the water To swallow every sound I should have let the hollow keep The name I had laid down

But the sea was bright behind me And the oars began to rise And something old and kingly Opened one unguarded eye

[Instrumental Break]

[Final Chorus] No man But the blue deep heard the cry No man But the wave remembered why What the darkness could not hold I cast in anger toward the foam I left the cave behind me But not alone

[Outro] Stone behind Sea before A name thrown hard At a closing door

Far below Where no stars shone The water stirred Around a throne