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"Old Trees" by Todd Giles

by Todd Giles

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1.
Wolf Moon 04:01
Wolf Moon There’s a wolf in the sky And he’s swallowed the moon But the moon was his eye A self-inflicted wound There was blood in his eye His eye the moon Now the mist is his blood And the thunder the bones The clouds are his soul As they wander towards home… The sailor carving scrim to map the sky How he remembered it grotesque as a child
2.
Firefly 04:01
Firefly She was a cat so when she walked off the stage some man tried to give her a bowl She floated through these scenarios as he looked her up and down Summers at the mid-Atlantic coast “at 18 years it couldn’t be cold enough for me” The weight was at the bottom so the deeper I dove As the sediments rose She was a bat with her eyes closed Immune to those discerning looks Careening around the bandstand There are no dry docks for vessels of this Size and shape she’d been told So she eased to shore – quietly careened In the lapping waves of high tide Heaving down with each breath Low tide arrives at moon light Which was too late – for this firefly
3.
Questions… Answers What was I thinking about last night? Somewhere between ten and eleven… That I was sure to remember in the morning. Was it something that my daughter said? Something precious something living now moved away Another snail with a shell outgrown What if I’d written it down would it have mattered now? Would I be somewhat less or an empty shell Would I wake up late for work and not get lost on the way? Stuffed animal guts lay strewn on the floor Of the depressed child’s room after the tug of war This may or may not actually have happened But the potential energy is ever present In stuffed bears and pigs to be ripped apart In a wild frenzy then repaired surgically By the needle and thread of a loving mother Reborn to be handed down to the generation after The scars will show through in that furry hide As threaded seams that keep the fury inside Once upon a time when I was you If a thread came dangling loose it dangled tantalizingly
4.
The Ferals vs the Strays The solstice is coming And nerves are fraying There’s a slow transition toward hunting And packs are being formed Under a cloud of growing darkness, lengthening shadows From underneath parked cars territory is being staked The vulnerable are being marked Those lucky enough for the leash are skipping steps upstairs A soft, fluffy Persian steps on a littered bag of chips under a bush As his cover is blown the wiry tabby with the cut ear pounces The first frost falls under a full moon Everyone’s breath is escaping in front of them in slow motion clouds Freezing sidewalks sting little cat paws The night watch in the slow cloud season is think with loneliness A dust up here and a dust up there the ranks are being thinned by attrition But the lucky few that do find refuge in a basement The string thaw will not reveal a winner Just a few hardened souls – survivors… that swipe and hiss at the hands of the local kids and a couple of frozen corpses to far gone to be identified
5.
“The Woodpecker” Fly through my window my sugar lump fly through my window my sugar lump and buy molasses candy Fly through my window my sugar lump fly through my window my sugar lump it’s cold when your feet are sandy Fly through my window my sugar lump fly through my window my sugar lump soon the shipwreck will be landing Fly through my window my sugar lump fly through my window my sugar lump we’ll be dry by the fire with brandy Woodpecker woodpecker 1, 2, 3 – using his beak to make a hole in the tree Woodpecker woodpecker 4, 5, 6 – let the other birds make their nests with sticks Fly through my window my sugar lump fly through my window my sugar lump with a thread and a needle handy Fly through my window my sugar lump fly through my window my sugar lump I’ll leave a candle lit to guide thee Fly through my window my sugar lump fly through my window my sugar lump though the mist conspires to blind you If your heart stays true fly above the fray and a sailor’s guile will greet you as the archers arrow pierces Woodpecker woodpecker 7, 8, 9 I’ll be the drummer in the woods tonight Woodpecker woodpecker 10, 11, 12 in these woods you’ll find me well Little bird little bird, fly through my window and bring molasses candy Whippoorwill whippoorwill fly through my window and sing me to sleep Woodpecker woodpecker fly through my window and be my heartbeat Little bird little bird, fly through my window and bring molasses candy Whippoorwill whippoorwill fly through my window and sing me to sleep Woodpecker woodpecker fly through my window and be my heartbeat Woodpecker woodpecker 1, 2, 3 – using his beak to make a hole in the tree Woodpecker woodpecker 4, 5, 6 – let the other birds make their nests with sticks Woodpecker woodpecker 7, 8, 9 I’ll be the drummer in the woods tonight Woodpecker woodpecker 10, 11, 12 in these woods you’ll find me well
6.
Only in threes The initial bolt of confusion when an alarm throws sleeping body into movement. Should provide electricity required to numb said body through its daily routine A deep fatigue that a few more hours of sleep wouldn’t have fixed Task, task, task – tisk, tisk, tisk A finger wag of a heartbeat list, list, list I woke to find that I wrote my dreams down again Crumpled by the bin, I missed, missed, missed But the record it plays on – the dusty grooves that the needle still plows through Dust, dust, dust the storms coming A red light, think a tail light on a dark, wet road Moving slowly expecting animals to jump out of the woods “what’s the commotion?” Ash, ash, ash – task, task, task – tisk, tisk, tisk A deep fatigue that a few more hours of sleep wouldn’t have fixed Task, task, task – tisk, tisk, tisk A finger wag of a heartbeat list, list, list I woke to find that I wrote my dreams down again Crumpled by the bin, I missed, missed, missed
7.
Custody Day 03:44
Custody day Hung over in a dark movie theater With my hand in the hand of my estranged daughter Her eyes not quite rising above the back of the seat before her “There are booster seats by the entry, out in the hallway” Said the child in the aisle seat next to us Our hands slipped out of each other’s as she went to get one for herself Lucky for me the theater was too dark For anyone to notice the dirt under my fingernails As she laughed in wonder at the sprawling screen I could sneak in a few minutes of sleep There was an elbow thrust into my ribs Daddy your snoring again! there was blue smoke flowing out of the back of an El Camino Something I could fix with a new set of seals and a ring job My daughter was a half a block away when I realized I was still watching blue smoke disappear into the streetlights
8.
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead” said the zombie They say you’ll sleep when you’re dead, but I know I’ll never change I won’t sleep then either. Do you believe in ghosts? Said the first spook to the next. You look like death! They say you’ll sleep when you’re dead, but some things (even then) will never change I believe in irony, but afterlife is after life, so it doesn’t matter to me now. We’ll sleep when we’re dead but I don’t see myself, the zombie, searching for a bed If it’s the liars vs the elites you know where this zombie will go to feast. They say you’ll sleep when you’re dead, but I know I’ll never change I won’t sleep then either. Do you believe in ghosts? Said the first spook to the next. You look like death! You’ll sleep when your dead but I don’t see myself, the zombie, searching for a bed If it’s the liars vs the elites you know where this zombie will go to feast. With a grand style they will look you in the eye and know that they have you. Where confidence is a cheap sell to the gullible With a grand style they will look you in the eye and know that they have you. When real strength of conviction is to reexamine and to question – a revolution’s a bridge too far
9.
Baseball: The second inning To the sound of summer nights through rusty screens Flies dying in zapping machine He was walking his dog that would not be sticking around till Christmas – their heads down Though everyone seemed to know that he too would not be long – for this town Shot out of town on a borrowed dirt bike Fill with the gas from his fathers battered, old Escort Thuds of tennis balls against garage doors – rattled the windows He’d ask me to play catch some nights and I’d fetch some old baseballs Was it shadow from the birches or bruises from the switch We stood for hours too far apart for words to matter more than this We’d stand in the middle of the road back to back Giants on the globe playing catch the long way home To the sound of summer nights through rusty screens Flies dying in zapping machine
10.
The Collector That feeling when you love something so much that you turn it into taxidermy A room full of trophies and Venus fly traps Googly eyes staring back at you triumphantly screaming You were right along – you were right all along My trophy case collects the most endangered of species Dresses them up to look like the most mundane of pieces One that you could walk to the tram stop without a second look – even if it shit on the sidewalk If we did this all the time – what a monument to shit it would be! Googly eyes staring back at you triumphantly screaming You were right along – you were right all along At least one of us is feeling inspired My handwriting is inventing new symbols all the time They go to my desk where things go to get lost At least one of us is feeling inspired

about

"Old Trees" is the first solo album from Todd Giles of the Union Ares. A record made during the early Corona times about things that occupy my mind. Art, Fatherhood, the unfortunate state western democracies find themselves in... beauty in the end. I hope, with each release form Old Man Giles records, to leave behind a bit more beauty than was there before.

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credits

released February 5, 2021

All songs written, performed and recorded by Todd Giles. Special guest Franziska Peregrine Marie Bujny on Cello on "The Woodpecker" We also wrote parts of the words together inspired by a traditional song called "Fly through my window" that Pete Seeger recorded on his amazing children's album Birds, Beasts, Bugs & Fishes (Little & Big)

Art design by Erik Mugira www.mugira.de
mastered by Chris Muller at Holland Spoor studio Den Haag

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The Union Ares

The Union Ares is Todd Giles, Iain Dallas and Huw Gurden. and Todd Giles, Mike Bailey and Gabry de Waaij

Todd used to play in Kolya. Huw and Iain Play in Carson Wells. we are Scotland based.
Todd, Mike and Gabry are plying our trade based out of The Hague.
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