From Swallows’ In the Shadow of the Seven Stars
Bring Your Dead Back Home
Bring your dead back home
Bring your dead back
Kali, Allah, Santería
Bring your dead back
Say their names
I know your sadness
I know your pain
Bring your dead back home
I can make them real
I can make them
Kali, Allah, Jesu, Shiva
I can make them
Feel them near us
Floating beside us
Inside this room
I can make them real
About Bring Your Dead Back Home
DATE: Friday, May 1, 1891
LOCATION: Home of Leonora Piper, Beacon Hill, Boston
SCENE: Soulless and alone in New York City, the witness once again feels the need to flee the scene of a crime after the prostitute Carrie Brown is murdered within a few blocks of his hotel room. The police are already asking thorny questions of the hotel staff and he is a strange traveler who has no real business in the city. He has not felt Frances’ presence for days. He discretely makes inquiries about finding a medium who can facilitate a re-connection with her spirit. He is referred to Leonora Piper, a prominent psychic from Boston.
At the Piper residence, the witness is granted a séance with Piper and her spirit guide, a Native American girl named Chlorine; however, Chlorine cannot bring Frances’ spirit forth from the world of the dead. In a strange twist of fate, he is beset with entreaties from members of a tribe that were recently murdered deep in the American heartland. Lost in the spirit world, the dead desire a living host to escort them to their ancestral home.
RELATED RESEARCH: Leonora Piper, Turn-of-the-Century Medium
Can you hear them speak?
Can you hear them,
Jesu, Shiva, Vishnu, Satan?
Can you hear them?
Ever closer
Whispering your name
Wanting to be seen
Can you hear them speak?
Can you see this light?
Can you see this,
Kali, Allah, Santería?
Can you see this
Reaching to us?
I feel their sadness
I feel their pain
Can you see this light?
© 2013 Kerr
Performers:
Aaron Kerr – Piano, Cello
Jeff Crandall – Vocals, Electric Guitar, Percussion
Justin DeLeon – Cymbals
Toni Tinetti – Vocals