Categories
Charleston, West Virginia Music & Songs Plants and the Emerald Kingdom Red, Soldiers, & Fire The Pine Fairy

Brothers (The Pine Fairy Frees a Small Man from a Mason Jar and Learns His Story)

 

 

 

 

This is a story about a little man the Pine Fairy notices is stuck to the side of one of his mason jars, just as he was about to clean it. Instead, he is able to set the little guy free to begin a new life and possibly start a new family. He is happy to learn the small fairy’s story. Although tragic from our perspective, the tiny fairy has a detached perspective on all he has experienced and sees it as part of a greater picture that is still unfolding.

What kind of fairy is the small man? I am not sure. Considering I ate paw paws and cornbread before sleeping and heard this song during the night, a baby corn fairy or a paw paw fairy would be my top choices. Probably corn, because corn fairies seem to have a detached, inhuman nature that is very accepting of death and are frequently engaged in emotionless violence.

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My daddy he was a woodworking man and
he had six fine sons to share his name.
Three were big and three were small,
but still my father loved us all the same.

He bounced the big ones on his knee and
the little ones he placed in a candy dish.
He said the big ones would be his pride and
the little ones they would grant his final wish.

Many of the Brothers were sent to fight a war.
Other of the brothers were left within a jar.

One days when we were fourteen,
cannonballs and bullets filled the sky.
Daddy packed up three sandwiches and
kissed the three large brothers all goodbye.

He said, “Now you must remember sons, that
there will come a day when life is done for all.
What matters most is you must not cry,
just stand up straight and look death in the eye, real tall.”

Many of the Brothers were sent to fight a war.
Other of the brothers were left within a jar.

We watched the brothers vanish
in the distance as dad held us in his hand.
He said, “I love you my small sons,
now it’s time to grant a wish for your old man.”

Then he dropped us all in a mason jar and
he shook us hard until two of us had died.
Then he fell on the floor and shook as though
his wiring had been shattered from inside.

Then he quivered till he grew real still and
I knew that the only brother left was me;
Just one tiny seed remained from
what had once been a big family.

Many of the brothers were sent to fight a war.
Other of the brothers were left within a jar.
I was of the brothers left within a jar.

 

Download MP3: Brothers

 

 

Categories
Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Charleston, West Virginia Music & Songs Purple, Magic & Sorcerers The Pine Fairy

The Pine Fairy Takes a Stroll

 

Why is the wind so cold? Shiver and shake, then shut the door…
I don’t need friends like that much anymore.
Why is the sun so silver, shining in the sky like a dime?
I must have lost track of the time.

Where did I put my glasses? Knocking the jars down with my hand
Spilling the corn meal and the sand.
Three legged stool, I think I’ll sit down on you just for a while…
Head in my hands, I’m crying now.

Time. Sky. There must be somewhere nice where all the birds go when they fly.
Space. Darkness falls casting its purple on my face.

Where is my cane, again? Oh, I see it leaning by the door.
Perhaps the two of us will go explore.
Just take a walk and let the wind try to hurt us as it will…
Friends that can bleed but cannot kill.

Time. Pain. Blood dripping in the mason jar- but not in vain.
Need. Planting us painfully with a golden seed.

And when the moon comes up we’ll capture it silver in our eyes…
Just a man and his cane walking side by side.
And when the moon comes up we’ll follow the silver it unrolls…
Just a man and his cane going for a stroll.

 

 

Download MP3: The Pine Fairy Takes a Stroll

Categories
Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Charleston, West Virginia Music & Songs The Pine Fairy Videos

Video of ‘Ben’ (from the Pine Fairy)

My first attempt at making a video. Although I hate having my photograph taken, somehow video cameras are less intimidating.

At any rate, this is another song about the Pine Fairy, a fairy on his way to becoming a magician. Being of a piney nature, he is prone to piercing, torturous bouts of grief. However, in the end, these feelings become the key to his power, lifting him above the humdrum of life and compelling him to seek out those things which are truly eternal.

 

 

Categories
Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Charleston, West Virginia Music & Songs Purple, Magic & Sorcerers The Pine Fairy

Ben

 

 

Cloud at my door, come in, come in.
Where have you wandered, my friend, my friend?
I have grown weary, I have grown tired;
Every day get up and start a new fire.

But what bothers me most is this feeling I get
That my life is a story that’s already writ;
And that faith has no magic except to forgive-
And if Ben isn’t real, then I don’t wanna live.

See you next Sunday, let me open the door
And you’ll walk down the cobblestone path like before-
Just a fluffy white cloud, one who never asks why,
You just wobble a bit then you climb to the sky.

But what bothers me most is that when you are gone
I stare hard at my hands and tell them to keep on,
Cause you gotta keep grinding and keep with the toil
Because life is just this; it is not something more.

Too tired to struggle, too bitter to give-
And if Ben isn’t real, then I don’t wanna live.

I watch you flying; I watch how you soar.
I know you are a cloud, you are not something more.
And the sky is a flag- something flat, something blue;
And yet you are my friend and I’m a friend to you.

But when I close my eyes all the blue grows so deep
That it drowns me in currents too wavy to sleep;
And I need to decide if the water’s a dream
Or if there’s still a chance life is not what it seems.

Caught between hard things and things elusive-
But if Ben isn’t real, then I don’t wanna to live.

 

Download MP3: Ben