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Into The Microcosm

by Laurie Shaw

/
1.
Welcome to the witching hour The loos are down the hall to the right Feel free to lean on the wood Vibrating from an animal bite The night she went missing I saw her kissing a stranger in a car The night of her passing I was amassing glasses at the bar Maybe it's just a summer of the shark How did you know the deceased? Ah, I didn't really She came in a lot She worked every other weekend At the art and hobby shop X-Acto blade panic Were they satanic, those marks In the bark? Well any art is exotic Big city narotics? No ta We are dwindling sparks Now it's such a summer of the shark
2.
It’s a little island of coarse shrub And you have to cross a bridge to get to it I tried to take a photograph of the river once But it was just pulsating with glistening oil So there I was in the assembly hall Drawing a cross section of an ox bow lake For the homework that she didn’t do I heard a true story that she did someone In the dunes And I was sick for a week From jealousy’s noxious fumes “Are you going to that thing on Saturday night?” I said And she said “Yeah I’m going” She said “I’m going” Yeah she’s going so I follow the river I will follow the river I will follow the river Rumour has it, Her older brother and his mates Encountered a UFO down in those woods But they were probably just high Off hallucinogenic drugs I’m slipping through the cracks, First responder to the love scene Creased and un-ironed at the window Hanging your cogoul on the banister As canticles erupt from the TV screen Hail crashing on the pond I will follow the river I will follow the river Where ever it leads I’ve got to proceed I will follow the river
3.
Forest Floor 05:55
Somebody said I'm not sure who told me, But somebody told me Down past the wildlife identification plaque On Saturday night, Everyone is staying at each other's houses Sneaking out, Out into the thicket And the fox gloves and the rhododendrons Bending back For the breaking glass Of fake drugs and bonfire ash What, go to the woods On Saturday night? Push the branches back And have a real cool time in the forest Under canvas I suppress The sick feeling of anxiety Well maybe I could navigate myself Into somebody's body? She'll be lounging in the embers Everyone remembers How she sought me out after deflection I'm not ready now But maybe Saturday night In the cave We will paint some evidence of erection What if, like, something, like, goes wrong? Are there instructions for getting the condom on? I tried myself once and the stench made me feel feint And I fell back and I lay shaking on the bed What, go to the woods On Saturday night? Push the branches back And have a dead good time in the forest Sticky tin in tow and does my mother Or my father know Where I am (I'm not even sure) I see your fingers on the forest floor I was so uptight on Wednesday night Well, that afternoon You approached him with the copy I was ill with jealousy All through Coronation Street But then I was fine After a bit, I was alright Where are you supposed to go to the toilet? That's what I got dead scared about So I didn't eat that morning Which meant by the second bottle Of sickly crisp Copenhagen lager The woods was already spinning The woods was already spinning The woods was already spinning What, go to the woods On Saturday night? Push the branches back And have a real cool time in the forest What, go to the woods On Saturday night? Push the branches back And have a real cool time in the forest (Repeat ad nauseam)
4.
Us Off Caves 07:39
What artifacts remain? Just metres below our sleeping bags And battery speakers? Secret mounds indicating Ice age civilisations Upper paleolithic Mammoth ivory Betula Pendula is her Latin name I want to touch you at the stigma Make your anthers explode In a passionate paroxysm of pollen (And possibly confetti) I want to embrocate my infatuation In your natural lotion Come the local spores I want to meet your mum and dad And watch Jeremy Kyle in your living room Us off caves There are oyster catchers operating On the mudflats not far from here But you were laughing hysterically And falling in the stonecrop I held your body and got you to sit down On a commemorative bench In the arboretum, in the moonlight Smothered by your hot fragrance Suppressing affection Until it faded like a phantom in the park Then you had a bad idea To swim in the wetlands (Too much vodka tonic) Put your hands to the hardening sap Who needs the city? We’ve got these spires of bark Where people do secret deeds Poke the mystery with a stick And awaken the sleeping unsolved Us off caves Wavering from my designated perch Makes the blood drain from my face And normally my legs are numb Will I make it to behind this tree To wee on it’s fallen leaves?
5.
Bodies found in ancient woods And from the gauge of his corduroy We can date him back To the start of the last millennium Bending like driftwood Float down with the pond skaters Now the woods is electric A nightclub in the trees One of the older boys Fashioned a hammock Somewhere down here And I overheard you talking About swinging in it Oh please, no! I don’t want to get buried alive I don’t want the next face I see To be a Tony Robinson type And they’ll speculate about my demise Then go to the pub Into the microcosm... Just like these ancient trees I’m a protected species Stamp the seeds down in the mud Germinate it in the sludge Letting nature take it’s course It doesn’t come if it’s forced It doesn’t come if it’s forced You break me in two bits Like a breadstick in humous My guts turn to mush As his fingers meet stomach I’m lip reading now, He has discovered the hammock And he will take you there tonight Yes, he’ll take you there tonight And he’ll enter you Like a phone in competition Into the microcosm... Into the microcosm... I want to be, I want to be I want to be a protected species Like these We’re going ancient trees Ancient trees Everybody here with me I was trying to get inside your frame Like an audience member On Top Of The Pops I don’t want a Legs & Co. rendition I want you in the studio miming I want you in the studio miming along Into the microcosm...
6.
Extinction 05:50
The aching solace of the salt marsh Punctuated with a white plastic bag That was blowing in a frenzy This is the night of the Triffids We were creeping like roots Through the cat grass We were combing the cave floor For your mobile The heavy duty electric torch Locked you in it’s beam And your eyes bounced spectrums Of light round the walls It was like swimming In aurora borealis But more densely perfumed With Tommy Girl I had a dream in my sleeping bag That I had fallen down a telescopic lens The embers rise And give the menacing tree A thousand eyes You’re a palm of sleeping jewels Perching on the exposed root of the oak Sitting your lips on the green glass We had something there! I should have ... Taken a photo But the spark died like the dodo Over farmed and not scared enough Of human contact Petals collapse And the crackling branches Meet the bark like spider lightning Yes, tonight we’re bringing electric pulses To the prehistoric flora The reds and greens of the disco lights Twin beams meet your body Like the rings of the Mysterons By half past ten the sun is gone And someone scary is opening A cling film ball of drugs I take a backseat I let my Neanderthal DNA take the wheel 99.7 percent genetically identical I want to chase that nought point three Let’s dance tonight Let’s take that last misstep into extinction Let’s take that last misstep I’ll meet you at the defining line That separates your body from the planet I want to set your endorphins off Trigger sensations on a molecular level Our legs are caked in the flint flakes We get our cooked meat delivered We split the bill We split the atom Emerson goes Emerson goes “Adopt the pace of nature Her beauty is patience” And Leopold goes And Leopold goes “I’m glad I will not be young In a future without wilderness”
7.
Polytunnel 04:58
I saw it through the bamboo shoots He was trying to reach your opal fruits Adam and Eve And the Eden Project In a cascade of cherubs with lutes So was I like, God? Or was I the devil? I was whichever one jumped out the bushes And went “Caught you red handed!” in the Bible It’s like, a whole religious thing... Remember the house Where outside I kissed you? The walls were papered in raised analypta I must have done a bad job Servicing your cupid’s bow ‘Cause I never really saw you again I never really saw you again Some clever lines must equal sex I just had to solve for X He lost marks on a filthy text But worse was my earnestness Solving the cryptograph of virginity loss It’s like the space race, But buddy you’ve already lost But I split the layer of permafrost When I heard you call my name In the polytunnel I realised then you were just a defrauder As my incisors met your vermillion border Collecting bed post notches Like an antique hoarder I dropped into the sea Didn’t make me feel too good Like a sex scene Or a philtrum stud But I had to believe I had to believe that Time would mop the dread up Well the glossiness is gone Like an advert for an escort agency, Partially faded I wish that you could look inside my head Like that Million Dollar Man doll And see yourself through my eyes Know how I feel inside It’s frozen in formaldehyde forever Writing your name in the water vapour Penning you love notes on parchment paper It all fades fast When you hit that certain age I remember your mum and dad’s settee It was leather It was beige I didn’t want to share you I wasn’t Jesus Christ I just wanted to move you Like a poltergeist Methuselah is a Great Basin Bristlecone pine It was knocking about nearly three thousand years Before the time of Christ Can you feel the buzz? Kicking in like the extinction of the bumblebee In the polytunnel of love
8.
Rising like a bog man Out of the muck You’re facing the jagged wall And all the birds are chiming I keep thinking about sticky eyes...? I used to get it all the time When I was a kid In the late 1990s Maybe it’s just something you grow out? I want to be authentic like the cave Like the woods and all the wildlife Within it But I’m stricken with second thoughts And paranoid I might get lyme’s disease From sitting in the grass You still looked really great Even though you’d slept amongst the rocks But you wouldn’t know it You wouldn’t know it Dad picks me up In his blue Nissan Micra I’ve never felt these effects before The smell of Sunday papers Rises like an orchestra And I fall asleep on the couch Everybody peels away Until it’s just me and Jack Leaning outside the grey stone finish Of the posh estate agents And he goes home and my sore head Fills up with summer air I want to be authentic like the cave But I’m not sure if that’s what you are into I’ve been more or less well behaved I don’t want to start smoking marijuana Under lean-tos And that “I love you” You said to me in the shed I think the Buckfast had just gone To your head I count the rings of the felled oak of romance As the dawn light sweeps across the yarrow I’m not ashamed That I never grasped the nettle Why take the risk? When your chances of success Are pretty narrow

about

"If I remember right,
She came crashing into my vicinity
Like a timpani bang
And a flock of cartoon love hearts
All came flapping up and blocked my vision
Like the seagulls in Last Crusade.
'Are you going to that thing on Saturday night?' she said
And I was frozen in her tingling perfume.
That's kind of how it started."

"Into The Microcosm" is the umpteenth long player by Laurie Shaw. The album explores the adventure of a small gang of teenagers going down to the woods after hours to camp and have a party.

Musically, the album adopts elements of disco infused organic textures and recordings of woodlands and snapping branches. Shaw's uncertain narrator tries to navigate their way through local mother nature in pursuit of a pungent crush.

Download comes with a PDF lyric sheet.

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released May 7, 2021

All songs written, performed and produced by Laurie Shaw in Kilgarvan, County Kerry.

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Laurie Shaw Kenmare, Ireland

Laurie Shaw is a Wirral-born songwriter and producer. He now dwells in Ireland where he records from his mountain retreat. He often gigs in Cork, Dublin and the Merseyside area. He has released around 100 albums to date (all of which are available on request). ... more

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