The Purest Land
Cormorant
I've slit the throats
of clergymen and governors.
Those bloated swine...
May their screams unhinge
a thankless crown.
O King! See your soldiers
scrape at the algae growing
below the planks?
They starve, yet still
they quarrel for phantom ore
once owed your throne.
"Forgive this ship of fools,"
said I to the mouths of trees,
leaves as hellhound tongues
outstretched to drink the stream.
The beast flung its filth
into the wake,
tail coiled,
fingers grasping
the remains of our splintered mast.
Once we've razed the land of gold
I will crucify him.
The corpses on my raft
smell of piss and blood,
yet they were but men,
and all men, slaves and kings alike,
leave stench as their epitaph.
Not I.
Holy Mother Church of Rome,
cleanse this ground I conquer!
Rain brimstone upon the judges
who steal from the weary.
Slaughter the Lutherans
and priests who taint your word.
Make Peru the purest land,
for I am its prince
and will forever be.
I am its prince
and will forever be.
O King! See your isle
burned by my soldiers.
Your vassals and their wives,
I hung them all.
Panama will fall.
With my daughter
I forge an empire
to survive us both.
My deeds live on,
for I have seen what men
could only dream they saw.
I have seen what men
could only dream they saw.
Share
More from Cormorant
Hanging Gardens
Cormorant
A Dance of Elk Entwined
Cormorant
Rain Follows the Plow
Cormorant
The Crossing
Cormorant
Trojan Horses
Cormorant
Two Brothers
Cormorant
Ballad of the Beast
Cormorant
Scavengers Feast
Cormorant
Uneasy Lies the Head
Cormorant
Salt of the Earth
Cormorant
Blood on the Cornfields
Cormorant
Hole in the Sea
Cormorant
Sky Burial
Cormorant
Voices of the Mountain
Cormorant
Voices of the Mountain [Instrumental]
Cormorant
The First Man
Cormorant
Junta
Cormorant
A Howling Dust
Cormorant
Funambulist
Cormorant
A Sovereign Act
Cormorant