Souvenir Gardens Lyrics

They circle the monument, the last standing reminder
Heads are hung low, somehow motionless and undone
Etching effigies of smoking odes out of cinder
Why the strange gathering of the righteous and unjust?

In the garden of souvenirs
Where the dead lie like blankets
One after another in succession
Row after row
Delicately lined side by side

Blending perfectly
As though they were abusive little homes
In a silent subdivision
A dreary town
Any town
Anywhere
Come into my garden of souvenirs

Where my friends are deader than dirt
And dirtier than the dead
Where the tombstones
Give shade to the quiet ones
And the trees above them
Cry out to the sun
Give them life through memories
As the buried weave their tales
The whispers on the horizon
Suggests a breath of stale air
Deeply...
Once...

An offer to steal its effervescence
And embrace its stench of misery
A stillness that only thaw knows
As uplifting as skepticism
And downtrodden as certainty
Any year young
To solemnly inhabit
This grave dwelling
Below the roots
Feeds insects our flesh
Cuisine of our Gods

So, welcome to my garden of souvenirs
Come one, come all
In the common spirit of things
We all convene
In remembrance of the gardens we're always forgotten in
In remembrance of the gardens we're always forgotten in

Come into my garden of souvenirs
Where my friends are deader than dirt
And dirtier than the dead
Where the tombstones
Give shade to the quiet ones
And the trees above them
Cry out to the sun
Give them life through sanctity

Casting doubt within the shadows
Much larger than the deprived crypt
Crushing weight of mother earth
Punishes rotten boxes of despair

Deep in your stony lair
Deep in your stony lair