THE POMEGRANATE SEED LYRICS

words & music by Cosy Sheridan

© COSY SHERIDAN / COSYNG MUSIC

THE POMEGRANATE SEED

I swallowed a seed in the dark long ago

a girl who needs her mother will do anything she's told

it was Hades, his horses', then it was my cries

the innocent losses and the breaking of the ties

CHORUS:
Mother do you follow

Mother do I lead

Mother I have swallowed

The pomegranate seed

You weep when I visit for the damage that was done

when I leave your fields in autumn,

you're not the only weeping one

for I can still hear that frightened young girl

calling out for rescue from the underworld

CHORUS

In the darkness and the heat

in that sacrificial deep

he said "Open, you are the seed.

In your mother's daylight

there is wrong and there is right

but here is just desire and need."

And for all I lost I know where it all starts

the seed finds life in the dark

CHORUS

DOROTHY AND EVE

Dorothy met Eve

at a fork in the yellow brick road

she said, I'm going to see the Wizard

I hear he's great.
Eve said, I've met him

and whatever you do

just don't tell him what you ate.

Dorothy asked Eve,

Should I go left here or go right?

Eve said, listen to my story

before you take my advice

I was thrown out for an

overcurious bite

They say I have a dangerous appetite.

But what I learned from the apple I ate

is there might be innocence

but there are no mistakes

There's always a safe easy thing to believe

so question what you find

behind the curtain, Dorothy.

Dorothy said, I'm just looking for a happy ending.

Eve said, Hollywood was always good at pretending

but when the movie is over

and Dorothy you disappear

Judy Garland will be left with all of her fears.

Poor Judy her happy endings

they were riddled with doubt

she ate the wrong thing

and she got thrown out

The end of the rainbow had nowhere to hide

Judy looked behind the curtain

and she did not survive

THE LITTLE TRAIN

The little train that could was the first book they bought me

I think I can I think I can the first words they taught me

Carry all the people where they want to go

Good little trains don't say no

CHORUS:

I think I can all the way to the top
I think I can never says stop

I think I can makes the wheels go round

I think I can slow down

How many little trains can't remember what it's for

they climb every hill to just find one more

it's day with no ending, it's a life that won't fit

It's a list of things to do that just won't quit

CHORUS

What if God isn't watching

What if life isn't fair

What if I cannot get a gold star

from the Great Out There

The little train that could said what if I sit still

if I do not blindly rush up every hill

I'm not tied to the track, I'm not tied to the story

I'm not burning out the engine

All the way to glory

CHORUS

ALL ALONE WITH A BATHINGSUIT

All alone in the dressing room

I'm not having much fun

the only consolation

is I'm probably not the only one

wondering why I bother with the battle I am fighting

the naked truth in this fluorescent lighting

me and my affirmations, we're going to have to re-group

why did I have to come in here and try on this bathing suit

I felt ok until I came in here

This body's the right size most of the year

but now I'm looking at the picture they have on the tag

might as well cut arm and leg holes in a paper bag

like the cover of Cosmo and Diet Coke ad

makes me just a little lonesome and a little mad

I gave myself a pep talk the other night

I said it's just a bathing suit, you will be alright

all the things I like about who I have become

in this dressing room I can't remember a single one

cause I am all alone with this bathing suit

You would think that a woman of my intelligence and age

could summon up a little self-righteous shopper's rage

but as I lose the will to live in front of the mirror

all the ways they have me hooked become clearer and clearer

and if I follow my thought down to the root

it doesn't have much to do with this bathing suit

BARBIE

Dear Mattel, I'm writing you this letter

I have some ideas on how to make Barbie better

so in this envelope I have enclosed a list

on how to make Barbie more like women who really exist

So let's make a Barbie who always has to pee

with a body succumbing to gravity

let's give her some problems with water retention

and fantasies she will not mention

Some facial hair and sensible shoes

and feet big enough she could really use

you built Barbie a front end

that's really quite impressive

but it's hard to think of nursing

with something so aggressive

And while we're on the subject

who could ever pretend

there's anything natural

about Barbie rear end

The kids are going to ask

sooner or later

so let's give Barbie her own vibrator

let's be compassionate, let's be realistic

whoever made Ken was a little sadistic

Dear Mattel,

you made Barbie an impressive sight

but if those proportions were real

she couldn't walk upright

she'd be crawling on her hands and knees

is it really so demanding

to want a role model who is capable of standing.

IPHIGENIA

When I was 15, 65 pounds is all I weighed

my religion was 500 calories a day

Me and my friends we started a webpage

there's a picture you can see every bone in my ribcage

We called it the fight club

welcome to our fast

starvation the sensation that will last

we read the magazines where the teens can learn how

I wonder if they care where I am now

CHORUS:

I am Iphigenia, the daughter you lost

for all you earn, I am the cost

Ruling the world has a very high price

I am Iphigenia, the sacrifice

They say if I get better, I can go home soon

my mother reads me stories in my hospital room

about goddesses and girls who can fly

I heard her tell my father, 'What do we do if she dies?'

We read about the Trojan War last night

Iphigenia, killed by her father so his army would fight

she died so they could sail off to his war

another girl who learned what her country wanted her for

CHORUS

She died so the big boys could win

sacrificed for a good westerly wind

someone got rich telling me to get thin

just looks like a different war from this bed I'm in

CHORUS

CORDELIA

I was Cordelia, before I died

I was the apple of my father's eye

The jewel of his kingdom

damn my truth and my pride

I was Cordelia, if only I'd lied.

I was Cordelia, the daughter of the King

if I'd done what he wanted, I'd still have everything

but love was very black and white

in my innocence of youth

I was a loaded weapon in the service of truth.

I was Cordelia, I thought I did right

but I sent my father off into a long dark night

If I'd been the good daughter, if I'd played the right part

you can bring down a kingdom with one honest heart.

If only the future held nothing to fear

if only love was always kind

and the truth was always clear

if only we could tell them just what they want to hear

I was Cordelia, the daughter of Lear.

THE LOSING GAME

I was raised with the tv on

on young long lean and blonde

beauty queens with high heels

you've come a long way baby, how does it feel

are you proud to be living in the USA

nothing beats a great pair of legs

Be all you can be, don't be more than an 8

stretch yourself out, you're not the right shape

CHORUS:

You're a little bit bigger, you could be smaller,

you could be thinner if you could get taller

just a little less, make you a little more

give you that little look they're looking for

if you go out where they say go in

it's a losing game you don't want to win

Little girls counting calories

want to look like the ladies they see on tv

you never know what your nature intended

your natural shape has been suspended

by diet soda and Dexatrim

makes your hair fall out but at least you're thin

what ever happened to a feminine line

came between you and your Calvin Klein’s

CHORUS

So say goodbye to the hourglass shape

full figure girls you're all out of shape

I have learned not to care what the pictures say

I was born with this body it won't go away

I don't need a diet, I would need a machine

to look like the women in those magazines

no one ever called me skin and bones

I'm not a frame, I'm a finished home

CHORUS

DEMETER'S LOST DAUGHTER

Follow me down to the River Styx

Look deep into the water

when Persephone appears on the riverbank

tell her, I am another lost daughter.

Tell her, my life never looked anything like my mother's

I never fit into the tribe

I have come down to ask the underworld

how to be more alive

CHORUS:

I think I found the answer

it's a bit of a surprise

we are blessed when we are fallen

we don't always have to rise

I'll be the queen of the bump in the road

of the heroes who never win

I'll be proud to be called a woman with a belly

she is not holding in

CHORUS

There's a certain sense of freedom

in a total loss of hope

you can miss a lot when you tie a knot

in the end of every rope.

CHORUS

THE UNDERWORLD

It's a long way in, a long way down

there's a lot of loss, before the found

There's a softest side to the hardest part

there's a reason the world cuts a hole in your heart

CHORUS∫:
The heroes have always been wounded

and the wounded have always known

we are always arriving

and always leaving home

At the bottom of the wheel

on the floor of the world

is the place where pain

is made into pearl

CHORUS

It's a long way in, a long way down

there's a lot of loss, before the found

There's a softest side to the hardest part

there's a reason the world cuts a hole in your heart

CHORUS

SHARP OBJECTS

I got something I don't think I deserve

it came up from behind in the big wide world

little girls are made of sugar and spice

and other things that aren't very nice

It's got me frightened can you hear I'm scared

I wonder if God's out to get me

I'd believe the world is a random thing

but whoever's in charge won't let me

CHORUS:

And the damage is done, mama won't you cry

tell your little girl it's gonna be all right

put a good word in God's ear

He left a lot of sharp objects down here

I found a little pink rock in the desert last year

it looked like nothing else out there

I thought that it might be a very good sign

little pink rocks don't chase off what sneaks up from behind

We need a childproof cap on the big wide world

don't sell it to minors, or nice little girls

should be a very hard place to get in

step on a mine, you can't go home again

CHORUS

There are moments I've waged, those I've won

I fight my own battles if I know they've begun

I didn't think I slept on a battle ground

candy from strangers, mama, look what I found

and if little girls are made of sugar and spice

I'm made of other things now they aren't very nice

CHORUS

BAD CLICHE

I have an uncle, he's a dirty old man

I grew up with a bad cliché

I have learned to find other things to do

on family holidays.

I have tried to love the sinner

and only hate the sin.

But whoever wrote that never got caught

in a dark corner with him.

I keep a baseball bat under my bed

and I always leave on a light

The same time each year

I get up and check the locks

sometimes three times at night.

And if God helps those who help themselves

where was God in my formative years

Why give me a voice to call out with

and then deafen so many ears?

I have tried to forget his breath

I have tried to forget his hands

The mechanics don't confuse me like they used to

But I still don't understand

The 9 year old she was frightened

the 12 year old learned not to care

stick a sharp thin knife long into her heart

she could not even feel it was there

and there's a patch of skin between my shoulder blades

it's still just a little bit numb

it seems to be there to remind me

of the destruction I have undone

I try to love the sinner

but it's more than the sin will allow

I look a long time into the dark

hoping the truth will show me how

SURVIVOR

I called myself survivor

I stitched it on my sleeve

my shield against those

who did not believe

it was my trumpet and my standard

my battle cry

as I led the army of truth

against the army of the lie

I called myself survivor

my first and last name

from the sharper edge of history

I was Abel coming back for Cain

I called myself survivor

but I did more than just not die

maybe the ashes made the phoenix

maybe the fall brings the rise

I have seen stars at midnight

I have heard the birds at dawn

in all of our surviving

beauty goes on and on.

A FLOWER FROM INSIDE EDEN

Send me a flower from inside Eden

I once walked that happy field

my life is nothing like I intended

who knows what the seed will yield

a flower from Eden's field

If you'd asked the child I once was

what she would not become

she would tell you the tale of all the things

that since that day I have done

what the seed has become

Young maiden they'll tell you

to build your nest

at the top of a very tall tree

but the wind will blow

and you'll fall below

to live in the roots like me

in the dark, where the blind can see

Send me a flower from inside Eden

I once walked that happy field.

MY MOTHER’S HOUSE

In my mother's house

there are flowers

fountains and gold

In my mother's house

there is every

fairytale ever told

In my mother's house

there is beauty

in the sudden summer storm

In my mother's house

there is love in all its wonder taking form.

In my mother's house

are fields of plenty

in the fall it's like they're all on fire

In my mother's house

there are soft beds

to rest on when you're tired

In my mother's house

the winters are quiet

in the silence hear the falling snow

In my mother's house

there's a time to arrive

and a time to go.

In my mother's house

are ancient trees

and baby birds in the nest

In my mother's house

there's a time to gather

and a time to rest

In my mother's house

are hunters and hurricanes

and everything can die

In my mother's house

there is heartbreak waiting

and no one really knows why.

In my mother's house

there is beauty

breaking in the storm

In my mother's house

there is love in all its wonder taking form.

YOU CAN ALWAYS GO HOME

I went down to the roots of a tree

where I have lately gone searching for home

Down a spiraling stair, a dark cave at the bottom

where the truth is sometimes shown.

The room was filled with raging women

ten feet tall with snakes in their hair

unconscious, unlovely, unholy,

the Furies, the goddesses of nightmare.

I remembered them from the fortune cards

that were a gift from my sister Athene

Long ago I let someone else

tell me what my life means.

The Furies they came to torment me

for the hope I let die

Your fate is just your destiny when you do not try.

So I look into the Furies fiery eyes

and I ask them "What are your demands?"

that's when I notice they're just puppets on strings

held by a woman's two hands

She'd been standing there waiting

in her dress that glittered and her silver crown that shined

I said "What are you doing here?"

she said "I've been here, behind the Furies all the time.

And the lions, the tigers and the bears,

they don't always look the same.

And there's more ways over the rainbow

than just sorrow, loss and pain.

I'm just here to remind you of what you've always known

Remember what I told Dorothy:

You can always go home."