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All He Needs

from IV by Mal VU

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lyrics

This twisted tree points its branches
to the smoking blue eyes of the sky
Once a man with needs,
a grown child with dreams,
held now encased in wood & vine

The wind turns the silver underbellies of the leaves
to catch the rain in limpid beads
& the brilliant sun coaxes him boundlessly

This is all he needs now. This is all he needs.

He had a name, a mistress & an offspring
Two feet to stand & teeth to feed
He had temptation, hesitation,
guilt, greed, religion & flesh to bleed

Mistress Bonnie never went out looking for her husband
He was last seen at the edge of civilization:
knees in the green moss, his head in his hands
There stood Timothy Dan was collecting scraps in the clearing
He called out to Joshua:
“Don’t go in that evil place, sir. Don’t go in there, man!”

The warnings were not heard by Joshua
for the whispering trees held him in a trance
as he crawled in deeper, slowly.

Timothy told this story so many times
that it became that the moss grew all around Joshua,
the green figure faded & blended in
until he came to a place to stand
& lifted up his arms to ask one last question:
& the vines whipped at him,
wrapped around his wrists & ankles,
shoots sprouted from his fingers bearing leaves,
his skin cracking & turning brown
Then Joshua went still—
til the wind let out her held breath
& gently swayed his twisted branches

Bonnie never went out looking for her husband,
never set her foot near the edge of civilization
She knows those woods are enchanted
but was this an evil deed?
As a tree without memory,
there was no need to set him free

credits

from IV, track released January 1, 2001

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Mal VU Chicago, Illinois

Mal VU began in 1993 in Columbus, Ohio by performance artist Vena Gore (Lesley Ann Fogle) and Darrin Brown. After relocating to Chicago in 1998, Vena worked in various recording studios producing Mal Vu songs at night. Mal VU grew to include Traci Trouble and a slew of guest musicians from the Chicago scene. American gothic with dark narrative ballads. Members of After-Death Plan ... more

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