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The Purple Cactus

from fin​(​n) by Smoky Ghosts of Big Trees

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about

The circle of life…hawks making lazy circles in the sky… Those guys in Ratt said what comes around goes around…They promised to tell us why, but they never did.

The unforgiving weather of the Western Oklahoma mesas accelerates the cycle of rebirth. Where do you fit in? You start by taking note of your surroundings. Remain in place, and you become part of the environment.

lyrics

Drop it on the pavement
Drop it in the sand
You feel a little nervous
When you’re shedding off the skin
Leave it to bake in the sun
Let birds pick at it for fun
It’s like ditching your shadow for a while
Another one’s on the way

The purple cactus sits and rots
The flowers wilt in terra cotta pots

Goodbye old friend
It’s time to leave this snakeskin
Nothing is permanent, don’t pretend
I’ve been covered up with anything but snakeskin

Remnants become rags
And rags become threads
Even cobwebs one day line coyotes’ beds
And all coyotes shed

Ain’t nothing stable, but nothing moves
Just a storm of our restless molecules

The purple cactus sits and rots
The flowers wilt in terra cotta pots
But you leave it to float like a feather into the ether
And drift like a seed, roll like a tumbleweed
Through all this Western weather
Through this unholy Western weather

I slithered in the technicolor widescreen
I left the pigpen
Sloughed this snakeskin
Red dirt upon my shirt, you know where I’ve been
The worm has turned and the game has changed
But the snake it still remains

The purple cactus sits and rots
The flowers wilt in terra cotta pots
But you leave it to float like a feather into the ether
And drift like a seed, roll like a tumbleweed
Through all this Western weather
Through this infernal Western weather

The purple cactus sits and rots
The flowers wilt in terra cotta pots
But you leave it to float like a feather into the ether
And drift like a seed, roll like a tumbleweed
Through all this Western weather
Through this unholy Western weather

credits

from fin​(​n), released July 7, 2023
The boys are joined by pianist Ron E. Harmon Jr., The Rubber Seoul Horns and The Fraternal Fireman’s Orchestra of Jinchon, ROK.

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Smoky Ghosts of Big Trees South Korea

The whooping went on, and in about a minute I come a-booming down on a cut bank with SMOKY GHOSTS OF BIG TREES on it, and the current throwed me off to the left and shot by, amongst a lot of snags that fairly roared, the current was tearing by them so swift. - Mark Twain “Huckleberry Finn” ... more

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