Lyrics:

2020

There are hundreds of rock carvings where we live, some as many as three thousand years old. When I see them, I’m compelled to contemplate the spiritual journeys, aspirations, and struggles for survival their creators must have experienced. I tried to imagine the energies with which they imbued their strange etchings and what message they might convey after 3,000 journeys around the sun.

While writing this record, I awakened one of those Petroglyphs in my imagination. Together, we invited all of the elements and spirits to join the dance, and I listened. The song that ensued is as much about nuclear war as the loss of indigenous peoples, a reminder that we are human, spirit, art, and dust all at the same time. ~SE

PETROGLYPH
Skip Ewing – ©2019 Write! On Music (BMI)

VERSE 1
I was born in a dream he had when a boy came alone
On a quest to become a man and he carved me to life in stone
He sang, Pray while the rock’s on fire, dance with the flame
Hide in the coyote choir, and leave when you lose your name

BRIDGE 1
Roam from home for a day and night
To sit alone at the edge of life
Spirits come and then they’re gone
Visions kill if you’re not strong

VERSE 2
‘Cause you don’t drink till your lips get cracked and your skin burns red
You don’t eat till you’re hollow-backed and the thought of it leaves your head
You don’t sleep till the world is gone in a mist of white
You don’t speak when the spirits come you just harken with all your might

1/2 VERSE 3
I’m what’s left of the dream he had, still scratched in the clay
The fossil of a future man, and here’s what I came to say

BRIDGE 2
When your arms are sticks and your hands are suns
Point your finger you kill someone
When your belly’s big and your heart is small
Use your head or you lose them all

BRIDGE 3
I’m now, the future, and the past
Go on take your photographs
I’m made of clay so I’ll fade from view
One last thing I’ll share with you
You’re made of clay, too

TAG
I was born in a dream he had when a boy came alone
On a quest to become a man and he carved me to life in stone