Kae Tempest - The Mouse Hiding Out In The Lion's Hair lyrics

Truth is golden
It's not up to me to speak it
Each needs to seek it for
Themselves and keep the secrets
Me? I fall down beneath it saying
That all things are holy
And I'm not trying to show you
What nobody could show me
I'm just trying to reach out
And stop me feeling lonely
Cause nobody's alone and that will
Set your soul free in fact
Come here I wanna hold hands and
Stroll through the cold breeze
I wanna tell you about the time
I met this old man, mouth full of gold teeth
Now he told me, his whole plan changed when
His homeland changed and
I was humbled and the thunder rumbled
And his laugh was like a
Tin can kicked down cobblestones
And they hear his voice in the treetops it
Sings at me when I'm on my own
He told me "Everybody needs
Everybody bleeds but you've got to show peace
If you want to know peace"
It was rock 'n roll street beat poetry
I said "I weep for the grief overloading me"
He said "All things happen
As they happen, child, " he told at me
His words rang rings around me
Like I was Saturn he was older
I was younger but we were openly discussing
I told him "I ain't going to
Stop at nothing" he smiled knowingly
He said "Child, you need to know something
" He said "The fire in your belly will
Eventually be dampened your eyes will be
Broken windows in abandoned houses you will
Stand around in the crowded
Precincts not even wondering what made
Me sink into the sludge
I fought against for so
Long, every day will just
Be another day trying
To hold on you'll sit and get tearful
Listening to the old songs but you won't feel
The heat you'll only notice when the
Cold's gone" I was like "Nah
Man not me, nothing's ever going to
Stop me" He said "Fine
Remember that in due time when
You've bent your back for
Ages trying to make changes
You'll realise trying to
Make a change is dangerous" I
Said "Change ain't dangerous
Man change is essential" He
Said "Change don't come at the end of your
Pencil change comes in
Each mind that is ready to embrace a new
Way of seeing things a new way of being
In this world" It was me and him
Sat there in the fleeting wind
A couple minutes passed and we didn't speak a
Thing and then he said "Don't you
See? One day you'll be old like me
And all the things that you hoped you
Be won't even matter
Deep water don't notice the little
Stone that disturbs it's surface
Beneath the little ripples it's just
Surging on I said "But man I was born with
A thirst and a purpose
Big enough to preserve and
My verse is strong, all I want to do
Is rouse souls with the words I'm
Emerging from more detergent wrongs
Of these merchant slums I don't
Pray to the no
Virgin sun I pray to the burning sun
And I don't suffer no fools who believe
That their learning's done, i believe
The universe is one and I know that my
Work is search and run and keep moving
Ripping my chest with the
Lyrics to step on my breath
In the city it tickles
My flesh in the middle of
This whole ridiculous mess
Trust they mellifluous yes I keep flowing
Cause me? I'm half priestess
Half circus freak
Bright eyes and the dirty teeth
Yes I'm weak and I'm nervous
But I will keep my
Feet on the kerb I'm the geek who can work
A beat
And we can speak till' the morning creeps but
You'll never stop me trying to reach
For them sprawling peaks
Cause I believe they are
Ours to find" He was like "Alright
Now I know for sure you've
Got the stars inside
Here's a little message for your
Heart's and mind for your
Heart's from mine" He told me
"In this life of
Hypertense you must keep burning bright
If your light's intense you
Must never lose sight of
What you fight against
You must accept that you can
Never know what your life
Has meant and if you write
To vent well that's
Fine but you should write to
Set alight cement and change
Time" He said "If you're the type with a
Light to share you need to
Know it takes a mighty
Heart to try hard in the lion's lair when
Everybody's out for the lion's share
You need to be
Like the mouse hiding out in the lion's hair
That's when he fixed me with a kind of stare
I never seen before and then he hobbled away
The night opened her mouth up
And swallowed the day
And I sat there on that bench feeling
Lost in the grey and I
Swore to myself I would honour every
Word he had offered my way