The Ballad Of Sweet Marie

Marty Willson-Piper, Niko Röhlcke

Appears On:

Lyrics (unofficial)

The spring arrives in shrouds and hoods
Darkness lingers in the woods
The flowers wither as they bud
The grass is browner than the mud

The swallow doesn't reach his tune
He left the South, arrived too soon
But is it not the month of May
With dancing girls and bales of hay

Pollen swollen from honeyed bees
Tortoise shells and ears of seed
But stretched across a bloody sky
There's angels that are born to die
Calamities and all amiss
In beauty's metamorphosis

But shadows reach across the lawn
Into the throats of the forlorn
They pull at hair, they punch your teeth
Come from above and from beneath

They bring down branches from the trees
They make you buckle at the knees
They slip you pills that kill your sleep
They spin you tales that make you weep

They push you into darkened sheds
They plant odd thoughts into your head
They kiss your lovers in full view
They take the lies and make them true
They wish for things that they don't need
And welcome Mephistopheles

Rusting hinges on the gates
Shadows cast unsightly shapes
They disappear when you pursue
Leave you there without a clue

Something lingers on your porch
You draw the curtain and drop your torch
A face stares back that cannot be
Resembling your sweet Marie

Her life you took the day before
And buried deep beneath the floor
Hallucinations fly like spears
Voices penetrate your ears
And to the sound of guilty chants
You slip into the devil's dance