Words and music by Helen Bell, arr. Helen Bell and Xenogon

Helen Bell: vocal, piano Xenogon: vocal, five-string electric guitar

A full studio recording of this song is available on the album "Five Thousand Feathers", available from: https://helenbell.bandcamp.com/album/five-thousand-feathers

Lyrics:

Coalface jackdaw on my chimney What do you know? Where will you go As we keep hacking and burning? No capacity for why And nowhere left to fly Would you drop out of the sky All blackening and turning?

And the earth is riven But the rivets are forgiven In the name of disposable days Do you pick the quickthorn berries from the dust And ache for us to end our ways? But feathers can't fight diggers Nowhere left to fly So here you stay and all the air turns grey.

Coalface jackdaw on my chimney How can it be That we can’t see? It’s not so hard to stop, is it? On command of just a few The system shackles all we do Each day, and mines the people, who Stay helplessly complicit

And the earth is riven But the rivets are forgiven In the name of disposable days Do you pick the quickthorn berries from the dust And ache for us to end our ways? How many feathers would it take to fight a digger? Is this the way we’ll stay As all the air turns grey?