When the Dunes
Begin to Breathe

Sunblind rider on a copper road
Smoke in his lungs and a stone for a load
Black wheel turning where the dry wind cries
Little paper moon underneath his eyes

The engine coughs
The vultures grin
The road rolls out
And pulls him in

Ride, ride, into the white
Ride where the noon swallows night
No road behind and no town ahead
Only the sun burning holes in your head

He saw a green flame under the hill
Drank from a shadow and swallowed it still
The mountains opened their mouths in the heat
Sand started moving beneath his feet

The engine groans
The mirrors bend
The road begins
But does not end

Ride, ride, into the white
Ride where the noon swallows night
No road behind and no town ahead
Only the sun burning holes in your head

Ride into the white
Ride into the white
The sun knows your name
The sun knows your name

She keeps a green glass halo
Hanging over her bed
She says it catches daylight
Before it reaches her head

There is sugar on the mirror
There are flowers in the flame
Every time the walls begin to breathe
She gives the walls a name

Green glass halo
Turn above me slow
Green glass halo
Tell me where the warm winds go

She wears a silver morning
Around her painted eyes
She opens up the curtains
And lets the ceiling rise

There is perfume in the water
There is thunder in the spoon
She says the room will leave the earth
If we wait until the moon

Green glass halo
Turn above me slow
Green glass halo
Tell me where the warm winds go

Do not wake the window
Do not touch the floor
Something has been knocking
From the other side of the door

Do not count the hours
Do not strike the match
Every little spark becomes
Another world to catch

Green glass halo
Turn above me slow
Green glass halo
Never let the daylight know

Found an old man by the county line
Selling little dreams in a bottle of wine
He had yellow teeth and a rattlesnake coat
And a cactus flower growing out of his throat

He said

Drink the cactus milk
Let it crawl behind your eyes
Drink the cactus milk
Watch the dead horizon rise

I gave him my watch
I gave him my shoes
He gave me a sunrise
In three different blues

The road became a river
The river became a wire
A woman made of thunder
Walked barefoot through the fire

Drink the cactus milk
Let it crawl behind your eyes
Drink the cactus milk
Watch the dead horizon rise

My hands became feathers
My teeth became bells
I heard little angels
Coughing in the wells

Drink the cactus milk
Let it crawl behind your eyes
Drink the cactus milk
Watch the dead horizon rise

Drink the cactus milk
Taste the shadow, taste the light
Drink the cactus milk
And forget which side is night

There is a room beneath the sand
With seven doors and no one's hand
A velvet chair, a copper bowl
A little flame without a soul

I found the stairs at half past three
Or else the stairs discovered me
The walls were warm, the ceiling low
The smoke moved where the smoke should not go

Down
Down
Where the sleeping colors grow

Down
Down
Where the buried rivers flow

A woman sat behind the flame
She had no face, she had my name
She held a flower, black and sweet
And dropped its ashes at my feet

She said the sun was just a door
That hungry men mistook for more
She filled the bowl with evening rain
And every drop repeated my name

Down
Down
Where the sleeping colors grow

Down
Down
Where the buried rivers flow

I left my shadow in that room
I left my morning in the bloom
I climbed the stairs without a sound
But something else came above the ground

Something else came above the ground
Something else came above the ground
Something else came above the ground
Something else came above the ground

Instrumental — sans paroles.

She carried black honey
In a jar without a name
She placed it on the table
Beside a little flame

She said it tasted sweeter
When the daylight had withdrawn
So we passed the silver evening
And waited for the dawn

Honey on the knife
Slow against the light
One taste for the morning
One taste for the night

Honey on the knife
Golden, dark and deep
A little for the waking
A little more for sleep

The carpet grew a garden
The clock forgot to turn
Her eyes became two candles
That did not need to burn

The radio spoke backwards
The ceiling filled with rain
She placed the jar between us
And called me by her name

Honey on the knife
Slow against the light
One taste for the morning
One taste for the night

The jar fell from the table
But never touched the floor
The honey climbed the window
And gathered at the door

The daylight came in pieces
The room became a hive
We heard a thousand wings begin
But none of them were alive

Honey on the knife
Black against the light
No taste for the morning
All of it for night

Honey on the knife
Golden, dark and deep
Nothing left for waking
Nothing left for sleep

White moth morning on the windowpane
Last night's thunder running through my brain
Someone painted circles on the telephone
Someone left the sunrise sleeping all alone

White moth morning
Chewing on the light
White moth morning
Where did you sleep last night

Coffee tastes like copper, floor begins to tilt
There is purple smoke inside the morning milk
My coat is in the garden, my shoes are in the hall
There is someone in the mirror, but I do not know him at all

White moth morning
Chewing on the light
White moth morning
Where did you sleep last night

Do not open the curtains
Do not answer the bell
The sun is much too certain
And the room remembers well

White moth morning
Chewing on the light
White moth morning
Please turn around and bite

White moth morning
Beating at the glass
White moth morning
Let the daylight pass

We reached the final desert road
The sky burned red, the engine slowed
The map dissolved beneath the heat
The sand came crawling through the seat

A buried bell began to ring
The stones awoke and learned to sing
You opened up the window wide
And heard the desert breathe outside

When the dunes begin to breathe
Do not ask what lies beneath
When the dunes begin to rise
Close your mouth and close your eyes

Pass the little paper sun
Slowly now, from one to one
Let the smoke erase the road
Let the desert take the load

When the dunes begin to breathe
Do not ask what lies beneath
When the dunes begin to rise
Close your mouth and close your eyes

The desert is awake
The desert is awake
And breathing through us now

The desert is awake
And breathing through us now