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Stories from 1339 Crowder's End

by Alex Robshaw

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1.
The Warlocks 01:12
The trail leads to the shore. The trees are blue and red and purple, and they are covered in the night. The stars are floating upon the water, and it smells like fire, here. Cradles are chopped to pieces by steal swords with long, hard blades upon which shines the light of the flames. The wood is thrown into the fire, and it grows. The trees are unharmed, and the flames do not spread, but keep reaching higher. The warlocks chant, or curse, as the cradles of the kingdom are being destroyed, and burnt, and they notice I watch them. "It is only right", a warlock says. "It is the only thing to be done", another adds. "It is as it must be, and it must be" says a third. "Who brought the first?" I ask them. "We all did, and we brought our own. It was only right." The warlocks are very old, and compelling, and they are everywhere. "Are you from the Tower?" one asks me. I don't think it matters anymore, and I keep walking.
2.
Not My Body 00:31
I am not my body. My body gets old, my body gets ill, my body is not inside. My body holds everything inside. My body is a box case for me. My body is a treasure case. My body is alive. I can feel it, sometimes. My body is useless. My body will die. My body is everything I will ever be. My body is not me. My body is the end of me. My body is the death of me.
3.
I walk by the water, and I see men digging a grave. "Oh, we don't know who it's for", they say, "we just dig the graves. Someone'll die here and call it its own. Its. They're all its once they're dead. It don't matter. Man. Woman. It don't matter. It don't matter once they're dead. They're bodies. Just bodies." "And all we do is dig the grave for it. The next dead body that comes to die by this side of the Trees. We only ever dig down to here, up the hill to the Trees, along that side, and this side o' the road." "Who dies by here?", I ask the men. They are bald, and their beards are tangled and wild, glittering with sweat. They are short, and pale. Their eyebrows are so thick they practically hide their eyes. "People who wanna lie by the water forever", one says, "Seamen, I guess". "So those tombstones over there", I ask again, "they're all dead seamen?" "No, not like that", says another. "Seamen may want to lie by the water forever, but other people too. Other people want to lie here too. People like the water." "Do you?" I ask him. Them. "I'll dig my own damned grave wherever I damn well want", says a third, and with that they nod, and resume their digging. I hear a song no one else can hear.
4.
You will come into me, and turn me into you. You will do whatever it takes until you will feel as though coming into me will feel like stepping into you. You will paint me, drive nails through me, stick posters and notes upon me; you will put big, heavy things inside of me, and in and on those things you will put more things that will make all of these things, and me, a part of you. You will walk, dance sing, dress, sleep, eat, cry, bathe, smoke, dream, read, play write, think, and masturbate within me. Every lover you will receive within you, I will receive within me. Every illness you will fight within you, I will fight within me. Every breakdown you will suffer ithin you, I will suffer within me. Every idea you will find within you, I will find within me. I will know everything you are. I will hold in every treasure you will display and every secret you will hide. I will watch you grow, a little older, slowly, day after day after day, in your time that will happen within me, and every change you will bring to me will be, in a way or another, a reflection of a change in you. I will creak; echoes of the life I breathe through the life of you, and you will smile, and know that you will never be alone, for I will stand here, keeping you in, safe.
5.
The Crone 00:31
She stands at every crossroads, on every path that is to take. She is a companion to the daughter below, and a counsel to the mother of the ground. The Queen knows to trust her, and as your giude, she will bring you to the wisdom of the Hecate. For if you never serve the Crone, then you may never be able to serve yourself, and then you might never be able to get out, and I will not let you lose yourself here, and I will not let them take you away from me.
6.
One. There is no such thing as a place worse than here. The worst people are here, and find us, as they must, as intended, and there is no worse course of existence than our lives as human beings, here, now. Hell is now, Hell is here, and the demons walk the same streets we do. Two. There is no such thing as sin. There is only human nature, and those too weak, or too blind, of too scared, to acknowledge it. There are no demons, for we are all, in our very own, special, unique, wonderful way, the demon of another. Three. There is no such thing as falling. There is only truth, and those who choose to embrace it, and those too frightened, or too lost, to hold it within. One day the Light shall rise, and so shall we. And if I truly am fallen, then I have only ever tripped on my own two feet.
7.
Of the Carrion we do not speak We let it lie and merely stare As one by one the creatures Come to feast Of the Carrion we dread the fate As night after night the smell fouls us awake To watch barrels full of blood Splattering the gate Of the Carrion we fear the tale As we swallow for the twenty-first time We dare not listen To the version of its kind Of the Carrion we spread the name As the road settles for the game Another sacrifice Dirty on my thigh Of the Carrion we feel the smile As the jump from the garden to the slime Brings another guy To the cradle of anthracite Settle his love, I said, settle his love Down the throat of the Carrion
8.
Freedom 00:19
You're alive. Listen. Listen to your life inside. Freedom is a matter of choice. It's always been. Whose words will you follow anyway? Don't you have anything else to say? The freedom to live. Because nobody cares on the Other Side.
9.
One-two-three There's a murder of raven comin' at me A murder yes, a murder see, A murder comin' to murder me Me-oh-my Another murder flying by A thousand tricks to cheat the game A thousand ravens for me to tame Trick me once, trick me twice Trick me so much, I'm startin' to like Them big black birds swirlin' in & out of me Peckin' and pullin' all the sugar from me They love me, they love me, oh, they're in love with me Master Raven please, go ahead, and have another on me
10.
I walk on, and then there is a railroad track. A woman, nearby, says to me: "Whatever you do, do not cross it. Do not cross it here." "I never thought I would find a railroad track in this place", I tell her, confused. "I am the Warrior", she says, "walk with me, and remember that when the time comes, the beasts will join us in The Great Escape. Listen: railroad tracks have no direction. They are a set of roads, and the direction is a matter of choice. Most sets of railroad tracks are all interconnected, and together they make one massive infinite journey through all the landscapes of the world. It is therefore very important to make a wise choice as to which direction one is to take when choosing to board a train, and even more so when choosing to follow a railroad track." Her voice is reassuring, and I know it is wise to follow her. She is walking along the railroad track. She is not exactly following it. She walks along as if it were a mere path she was choosing to take, strolling in a garden. At some point, it will be safe to cross.
11.
It is said that the boundaries of the Sun are not yet entirely defined. It is also said that the Sun is deadly, and most vicious, for it burns the Earth, and its life, relentlessly; it burns flesh, and it burns eyes, very, very slowly, so slowly that the living creatures of the Earth barely even notice the destruction inflicted upon them by the Sun. They are only to notice it once traces of the damage begin to appear, traces of Time, traces of the Sun, and it is always forever too late. There are a star that would not take its light from its Sun, that wanted to shine its own light, and eventually, it did. I had a dream, and you were strangling me, and I was choking, and then I woke up.
12.
Dreams of a thousand skulls bathing in the juices of the spider's bed. (Skulls are faceless.) Before nightfall, before nightfall I swear. We only ever drink the very best of our kind. What spider? I don't remember having to meet any, but I do now. (That's all she does anyway. Remember. That's all she can do.) The juices are mine, no matter what they say. The juices are mine.
13.
I wish the world was coloured in two shades and I wish I could believe in hope. I wish the colours were the same as my heart and I wish there'd be only one of me. The world is grey and it's never truly night and it's never truly day forever.

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13 short stories written as companions to the songs from Alex Robshaw's first album, 1339 Crowder's End

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released October 12, 2015

Written, produced and performed by Alex Robshaw
Recorded by Christopher Kelly in Longueuil, QC, Canada, in September 2015

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Alex Robshaw Montréal, Québec

Enthralling, fierce and powerful, Alex Robshaw redefines the boundaries of sonic performance, combining the intensity of her take on alternative rock with her mastery of storytelling.

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