"No One Seems To Hear" is a song I wrote in Austin, TX in 2009.  While recording Fabulous Dream, I spontaneously recorded myself singing the lyrics in an entirely different style.  I layered bass, guitar, and string samples under the a cappella vocal, and renamed it "The Invisible Church."  The original song appears on the Holy Smokes album.

No One Seems To Hear

late at night,
when I’m uptight,
I sink into the avenue

everyone’s asleep;
thank God I don’t keep
track of time,
or I’d be inclined to mastermind
the perfect crime

I’m everywhere at once,
and it’s not what she wants,
but I’m not afraid
of incurring
the wrath
of the false prophets
patrolling the path
of the well-beaten
herd,
stampeding at a hundred miles an hour
in their fiberglass
pills,
swallowed up
by the mountains
and hills,
and all the towers in the city
are falling like confetti
from the sky

under the dreamsicle
gloom
and the petrified
trees
the concrete comes up to my
knees,
and then the ground
around my waist
and that’s when your face
appears to me on a falling leaf—
I can see my reflection
in your teeth

tell me,
who had to die
for that wicked gleam in your eye
to finally shine so bright?

you’ve regained your appetite
and lost your sight
on the boulevard of chokes & screams
tonight

a bed of nails
a sky of stones
your image burned
into my bones
and the cloud of smoke
rising from your ashes
reminds me of
a flock of dirty
turtledoves
hovering
above
the ruins of
a crumbling empire

so take my hand—
I’m your angel of death
I’m your misleading man,
and I’ll never be declawed,
and I’m richer than God,
and I’m in control,
for whatever it’s worth,
of the whole wide
world
to the ends of the earth

sharpening my claws
on the laws
and broken contracts
you signed with yourself
to increase your illusion
of power and wealth

and now that it’s gone,
which side are you
on, man,
we’re dying here!

and meanwhile,
the pigs expand their search,
but they’ll never find me
cuz they’ll never think to look in the invisible church

I’m all alone;
no one else is here
I toll the bell,
but no one seems to hear

© 2009 Nathan Payne

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