Birth of Serpents

Let the camera pull back 'til the fullness of the frame is clear and plain Peer into the screen until you see it all like a vision in a crystal ball Let it all fill with smoke Is this somebody's idea of a joke Let the fixer work until the silver's washed away and take the picture from the tray Look hard at what you see and then remember you and me and let the truth spring free Like a jack-in-the-box Like a hundred-thousand cuckoo clocks From the Oregon corners To the Iowa corn To the rooms with the heat lamps where the snakes get born Crawl through the tunnel and follow, follow the light northwest See that young man who dwells inside his body like an uninvited guest See the tunnel twist Clutch your birthright in your fist Let the camera do its dirty work down there in the dark Sink low, rise high, bring back some blurry pictures to remember all your darker moments by Permanent bruises on our knees Never forget what it felt like to live in rooms like these From the California coastline To the Iowa corn To the rooms with the heat lamps where the snakes get born --- Birth of Serpents - The Mountain Goats