Dancing Shoes from Lucid Lockpicking by Death and The Poetess

The outro lyrics to this song include a partial re-imagining of the tune 'Bed Is Too Small For My Tiredness.' It's one of the lullabies my mother sang to me, she learned it at sleepaway camp in the 1950s. / The lyrical themes are reminiscent in part of the Grimms' fairy tale of 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses.' The princesses dance the night away in another land, returning in the morning with no trace of leaving their locked bedroom save for their tattered slippers.

Our work with these sources points to the lifelong lesson of readying oneself for the final dance/act, and the hope of not fearing the long night or the end of one's adventure. I'm guided and inspired by the Buddhist meditation-preparation for "the ejection of consciousness" at the end of life.

Blake wrote the original composition/seed tune for this song.
-jojo

Tracklist

6.	Dancing Shoes	3:30

Lyrics

DANCING SHOES:

Your dancing shoes
Grown too small
Pry them off your feet
Skeleton heavy, laces pressing
Untwine yourself, weep

The party’s long over
Your chalice run dry
Your face sticky & sweet

There’s nothing to fear here
You’re ready to rest here
Lay your skull on this bier
There’s nothing to fight here
You’re ready to die here
Lay your soul on this pyre

Battle-weary / armor spent
Lance / rusty & wrecked
Skeleton heavy / faces beat
The field / eerily bleak
Unburdened self / eyes run dry
Only ghosts to defeat

The party’s long over
Sword red and sheathed
Your face, sticky and sleek

There’s nothing to fear
Rest your spi-rit
Lay your skull on this bier
There’s nothing to fight
You’re ready to die
Lay your soul on this pyre

Grown too small
Pry them off your feet
Skeleton heavy, lie down in the straw
Time to go in peace

(Outro:)
Bed is too small for my tiredness
You’re my hilltop of trees
You’re my blanket of clouds
Wrap me up in your shroud

Rock me to sleep in a cradle of dreams
Send me a lullaby of leaves
Tuck a cloud up under my chin
Lord blow the moon out, please

Credits

from Lucid Lockpicking, released March 1, 2025
Blake: composition, vocals, guitar, marimba
jojo: lyrics, vocals, soprano & concert ukuleles

The track art is the illustration "The German Tango" by Louis Raemaekers, 1916.

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