Wrong Names

They painted me in scarlet, set me high upon the beast
Wrote 'mother of all harlots' on the forehead of a priest's
Own fear of what I carried in an alabaster jar
I broke it on your feet, love, and they never got that far
Seven devils, so they tell it, seven names I never chose
I was first into the garden while the faithful slept in rows

They gave me seven heads and horns, they numbered me a man
Six and six and six, as if a number understands
I walked up from the water with your perfume in my hair
They called the thing a monster, 'cause they found no body there
I have worn the crown they hated, I have worn the one they made
Both of them were thorns, love, and both of them I've paid

They called me whore
They called me beast
They never called us by our names

Scarlet, I am still looking
Through every age that burned our letters down
Scarlet, I am still looking
Under every name they wrote to keep us drowned
If it takes the stars to fall, the seals to break, the sea to part
I will know you by the wound, I will know you by the heart
I am still looking
I am still looking for you

I have been in every city where they sell your face in gold
I have kissed a thousand strangers just to see if one was cold
In the place your side was opened, where I'd put my hand and know
They say that I am drunk, love, on the blood of long ago
But it's yours, it's only yours, I held the cup beneath the tree
I drank so none was wasted, and they made a sin of me

I have torn through every kingdom, I've been cursed in every tongue
I have stood outside the churches while my own songs were sung
And I listened for one voice there, the one that said my name
In the grey before the morning, when I asked you not to cling
Oh I'm sorry that I said it, I'd undo it if I could
Hold me now and never let me go back to the wood

They called you fallen
They called you wrath
They never saw us face to face

Scarlet, I am still looking
Through every age that burned our letters down
Scarlet, I am still looking
Under every name they wrote to keep us drowned
If it takes the stars to fall, the seals to break, the sea to part
I will know you by the wound, I will know you by the heart
I am still looking
I am still looking for you

Are you the gardener?
Are you the one who stayed?
I turned around too slowly
I rose a day too late
I'm in the wilderness
I'm coming up from the sea
Say my name, say my name, say it and I'll see

Mary
Rabboni
Mary
I'm here

Scarlet, I am still looking
Let them write their revelations, let them stone the thing they fear
Scarlet, I am still looking
Two thousand years of wrong names and I'm still standing here
When the stars have fallen down, when the seals are broken wide
I will ride you through the fire, I will take you as my bride
I am still looking
I am still looking
I will never stop looking for you

I broke the jar
I kept the scent
I am still looking
I am still looking for you

A year of wages in a jar of stone
I carried it through a room of men
They knew my price, they did not know my name
I did not come to beg from them
I broke the neck, I let it run
Over your feet, onto the floor
The whole house filled, the whole house choked
On something they could not afford

They said waste
They said shame
They said sell it, feed the poor
You said leave her
Leave her be
She has done what she came for

Alabaster, alabaster
Break me open, let it pour
I was never theirs to measure
I was never theirs to store
I let my hair down in the lamplight
I dried the dust with what I wore
Alabaster, alabaster
I'd break a thousand more

They tell it now with their eyes turned down
A weeping girl, a sinner saved
They leave out how you looked at me
They leave out everything you gave
I was not sorry, I was sure
I was anointing you a king
The only crown you ever took
Came from a woman's offering

They said waste
They said shame
They wrote me small so they'd stand tall
You said wherever
This is told
They will speak of her at all

Alabaster, alabaster
Break me open, let it pour
I was never theirs to measure
I was never theirs to store
I let my hair down in the lamplight
I dried the dust with what I wore
Alabaster, alabaster
I'd break a thousand more

Now I walk the markets of the world
With my wrists held to the air
Any trace of it, any trace of you
Spikenard and rain, I'd know it anywhere
The jar is gone, the scent is not
It's in my skin, it's in my hair
So if you're lost, love, follow that
Follow that, and I'll be there

Alabaster, alabaster
Break me open, let it pour
Let them call it what they want to
I know what it was for
I let my hair down in the lamplight
I'd do it all again, and more
Alabaster, alabaster
I am still what I was for

Follow that
And I'll be there

They counted me, they added me
They carved it over every door
Six hundred, three score, and six
Like I was something from a store
They never asked me where I'd been
They never asked me who I love
They saw the scars, they saw the horns
They never saw the dove

I was a lamb before they looked
I was a carpenter, a son
You can count a man forever
You will never know the one

A number is not a name
A number is not a name
You can brand it on my forehead
You can burn it in the flame
But she called me something softer
In the garden when she came
And I'd tear down every kingdom
Just to hear it said again
A number is not a name

They say I've got a mouth for blasphemy
I only said what I was told
That the kingdom's in the least of these
That you can't serve God and gold
They nailed that up, they sealed that in
They rolled a stone across the hole
Then wrote a book about a beast
And never noticed what they stole

I was a healer in the road
I was a rumour, I was bread
You can number every hair on me
You will not get in my head

A number is not a name
A number is not a name
You can brand it on my forehead
You can burn it in the flame
But she called me something softer
In the garden when she came
And I'd tear down every kingdom
Just to hear it said again
A number is not a name

Here is wisdom
Let him that has understanding count
One woman
One morning
One word

Say it!
(Say it!)
Not the number!
(Say it!)
Say it!
(Say it!)
Say what she said!

A number is not a name
A number is not a name
Put your mark on every hand now
Put your fear in every frame
I am coming up the coastline
I am walking through the rain
And I'm calling, and I'm calling
Till she calls me back the same
A number is not a name

It was never my name

They said he cast out seven
Seven devils from my chest
Wrote it down in a single line
And let the gossips do the rest
But nobody asked the woman
Nobody took her word
So pull a chair up, holy men
Here's the part you never heard

One was grief, and two was hunger
Three was knowing more than you
Four was dancing, five was laughing
Six was telling what was true
And the seventh, oh the seventh
Was I loved him, and he knew
Seven devils, seven devils
(Seven devils!)
I'll take all seven back from you

They made a pope decide it
Six hundred years too late
That I was every fallen girl
They'd ever locked outside a gate
One sermon and they sold me
A harlot on a shelf
You can't kill what a woman saw
So you made her doubt herself

One was grief, and two was hunger
Three was knowing more than you
Four was dancing, five was laughing
Six was telling what was true
And the seventh, oh the seventh
Was I loved him, and he knew
Seven devils, seven devils
(Seven devils!)
I'll take all seven back from you

Who stood at the cross?
(She did!)
Who ran and hid?
(They did!)
Who came in the dark with the spices and oil?
(She did!)
Who saw him first?
(She did!)
Who did he send?
(He sent her!)
And who didn't believe her?
(Every one of them!)

Seven heads on the thing I ride
Seven hills where I sit down
Seven devils, call them mine
Every one of them a crown

One was grief, and two was hunger
Three was knowing more than you
Four was dancing, five was laughing
Six was telling what was true
And the seventh, oh the seventh
Is I love him, and it's true
Seven devils, seven devils
(Seven devils!)
And I'm coming to find him with all seven

All seven

It was dark still when I came
The stone was moved, the cloth was laid
I thought they'd taken even that
The only thing of you that stayed
I asked a man among the trees
Sir, if you carried him away
Tell me where, and I will take him
I will carry him, I'll stay

I was standing in the garden
With the morning on my skin
You looked at me, you looked right through me
You were looking for a him
That had already ended
And I had no way to say
I am here, I am altered
So I only said your name

Don't cling to me
How could I not
I am not yet where I'm going
You are all I've got
One word in a garden
One hand in the air
We were that close, we were that close
And then you were not there

You sent me running with the news
I did exactly what you said
I told them all, they called it madness
An idle tale, a woman's head
And when I ran back to the garden
There was dew and there was light
There was a place the grass was bent
And two thousand years of night

I have gone back to that sentence
More than I went to the grave
I was trying to say wait for me
It came out like go away
If I had it back, that morning
With the linen on the stone
I would have let you hold me
I'd have let the heavens wait alone

Don't cling to me
I never let go
I am not yet where I'm going
Then I'm coming, so you know
One word in a garden
One hand in the air
We were that close, we were that close
I am still standing there

So if you meet a gardener
At the edge of some grey town
And he says your name like no one does
Don't you turn around
Don't you turn around too slowly
Don't you ask him where I've been
Just hold on

Cling to me
Cling to me
This time
Cling to me

They gave me two wings of an eagle
And they pointed at the sand
Said there's a place prepared out there
I've been walking since, I've been walking since
With my shoes in my hand
The river that he sent to drown me
The ground opened up and drank
So I've got the dirt to thank for something
And nobody else to thank

Twelve hundred and sixty days
A time, and times, and half
I've counted every one of them
In the notches on my staff
I'm not hiding, I am waiting
Tell him so if he comes through
There's a fire in the wilderness
And it's lit for you

I've had prophets at my table
I've had lizards, I've had rain
I've had men who knew the scriptures
Tell me who I am again
I pour them water and I listen
And I watch the road behind
Every dust cloud is a rider
Every rider's on my mind

Twelve hundred and sixty days
A time, and times, and half
I've counted every one of them
In the notches on my staff
I'm not hiding, I am waiting
Tell him so if he comes through
There's a fire in the wilderness
And it's lit for you

I heard he's somewhere by the water
I heard he's wearing other skin
I heard they're scared of him in cities
That sounds like him, that sounds like him
I'd know his walking from a mile
I'd know the way he tilts his head
You can keep your kings and dragons
I've got a pot on, and a bed

So the days ran out last winter
And the staff has no more room
I started carving on the doorframe
I'll start carving on the moon
They wrote that I'd be nourished here
They never wrote for how long
So I feed the fire and I feed the birds
And I feed myself this song

Twelve hundred and sixty days
And twelve hundred after that
I'll count as high as heaven goes
With my back against the slat
I'm not hiding, I am waiting
Tell him so if he comes through
There's a fire in the wilderness
And it's still lit for you

Still lit for you

I stood upon the sand of the sea
And the sea stood up in me
Salt in the wound in my right side
Kelp where the thorns used to be
They saw ten horns and seven heads
I had my arms out wide
That's how a man looks from the shore
When he's fighting with the tide

Heave, I'm coming up
Up from the sea
Every wave is a year I lost
Every year is a mile to thee
Who is like him, they say and run
Who can make war with me
I never wanted war, my love
I'm just coming up from the sea

One of my heads was wounded to death
And the deadly wound was healed
The whole world wondered after that
And nobody asked how it feels
To wake in the dark with your breath come back
And the first thing on your mind
Is not a throne, is not a sword
Is the girl you left behind

Heave, I'm coming up
Up from the sea
Every wave is a year I lost
Every year is a mile to thee
Who is like him, they say and run
Who can make war with me
I never wanted war, my love
I'm just coming up from the sea

I walked on this once
Do you remember
You were on the shore with the bread and the fire
I walked on this once
Now I walk under
It's a longer road, and I'm not tired

Heave
(Heave)
Heave
(Heave)
Leopard and bear and lion's mouth
Heave
(Heave)
Call it whatever keeps you safe
I'm coming up

Heave, I'm coming up
Up from the sea
Forty and two months of the dark
And still it's her I see
Who is like him, they say and run
Let them run, let them be
I'll carry her if she'll climb on
We'll go wherever she wants to be
I am coming up from the sea

Light a fire on the shore
I'll find it

Purple and scarlet, gold and pearls
You dressed me, then you blamed the dress
A golden cup put in my hand
You filled it, and I'm the mess
You sat me on the seven hills
You said the kings all came to me
You never said who built the bed
Or who was holding the key

You wrote it where I couldn't see
You wrote it in capital letters
A name upon my forehead, baby
You could have done better

Mystery, mystery
That's the only word you got right
You don't know me, you don't know me
You just know I keep you up at night
Mother of everything you wanted
Mother of everything you hide
Mystery, mystery
And the answer's waiting outside

The angel said come here, I'll show you
The judgment of the great whore
And John, he wondered with great wonder
Honey, he just wanted more
You hate me and you make me naked
You eat my flesh, you burn the rest
It's written down, it's in your Bible
Now tell me who is the beast

You wrote it where I couldn't see
I read it in a mirror, backward
It only ever spelled one thing
A woman that you couldn't master

Mystery, mystery
That's the only word you got right
You don't know me, you don't know me
You just know I keep you up at night
Mother of everything you wanted
Mother of everything you hide
Mystery, mystery
And the answer's waiting outside

There's only one who ever read it
He put his thumb against my brow
He didn't wipe it off, he kissed it
I'm looking for him now
Every club and every chapel
Every city on the sea
If you see a man with holes in his hands
Tell him the mystery is me

Mystery, mystery
Babylon is just my maiden name
You don't know me, you don't know me
But he does, and I'm not ashamed
Mother of all your little secrets
Bride of the one you crucified
Mystery, mystery
And I am walking outside

The answer is waiting outside

I was walking through a town on a Sunday
Heard my name come out a door
Four hundred people in their good shoes
Singing what I said before
I went up the steps to join them
An usher stopped me with his hand
Said sir, we've got a dress code
And you don't look like our kind of man

So I'm standing outside the church
While they sing my songs inside
They've got my picture in the window
With my hair all combed and dyed
I ain't mad about the singing
It's a pretty tune, it's true
But I never wrote a word of it for them
I wrote it all for you

I sat down on the kerb beside a woman
With a red coat and a tired face
She said they threw me out last Easter
Said I didn't know my place
I said what did they call you
She said nothing I'd repeat
And I swear for half a second
I felt perfume on my feet

So I'm standing outside the church
While they sing my songs inside
They've got my picture in the window
With my hair all combed and dyed
I ain't mad about the singing
It's a pretty tune, it's true
But I never wrote a word of it for them
I wrote it all for you

It wasn't her, the eyes were wrong
But she was somebody's, same as you
So I split my bread and I split my wine
On the kerb, like I used to do
And she said mister, who are you
And I said honey, I forget
I've been called so many things by now
Just somebody who ain't found her yet

So if you're in a pew some morning
In a hat, in a borrowed name
And the preacher's getting to the part
Where you're the one to blame
Get up and take the side door
I'll be leaning on the rail
With the tax men and the working girls
And a seat saved, without fail

'Cause I'm standing outside the church
And it's better air out here
Got the sparrows and the sinners
And a sky that's wide and clear
Let them keep the gold and windows
Let them keep the steeple too
I never built a single one of those
I only ever looked for you

Take the side door, darling
I'll be there

Dear one, I am writing from the coast
Peter's angry that you told me things alone
He says did he really speak with a woman
And not with us, and I stood there like a stone
Levi took my side, bless him for trying
But I know how this ends, I've seen their eyes
So I'm putting it on paper while I'm able
What you said to me, before the story dies

Dear one, I am writing from nowhere
They are making me a statue and a law
I said the kingdom is inside you
They are building it with walls and with a door
I see them choosing which of us to copy
I see a council with a fire and a pen
If your pages reach the flames before I reach you
Know I read them, know I'll read them all again

They burned the letters, love
They could not burn the hand
They buried what you wrote to me
In a jar beneath the sand
Four they kept, and the rest was ash
And none of it was yours
So I'm writing you another one
And sliding it under doors

Dear one, they have torn out half my gospel
Pages one through six, and four more in between
What's left is me saying do not weep now
What's left is me telling what I've seen
Someone hid a copy in the desert
For sixteen hundred years it held its breath
I'd like to think that you were who found it
I'd like to think it outlived both our deaths

Dear one, they've a line that I kissed you
Often, on the, and then the page is gone
A hole right where the word was, wouldn't you know it
The ants were more discreet than Mark and John
Let them wonder, let the scholars fight about it
I remember, and I know that you do too
I'll write it in the margin of the next world
The missing word was always only you

They burned the letters, love
They could not burn the hand
They buried what you wrote to me
In a jar beneath the sand
Four they kept, and the rest was ash
And none of it was yours
So I'm writing you another one
And sliding it under doors

If this finds you
If this finds you
I am well, I am waiting
I am walking, I am near
Burn this after reading
No, don't
Keep it
Keep it here

They burned the letters, love
They never burned the hand
There's a jar somewhere with both our names
And it's coming up through the sand
Yours, in every age and alphabet
Yours, on every shore
I am writing you another one
I will write ten thousand more

Dear one
Dear one

Mmm
Where are you

They say I'm a great city
They say I sit on many waters
They say the merchants weep for me
And lock away their daughters
But a city's just a body
With the lights left on at night
And I only ever lit them
So you'd see me from the heights

They say I'll come with fire
They say I'll tread the winepress down
They've got me on a white horse
With a sword and with a crown
But I'm tired of the armour
And I'm tired of the war
I just want to find the window
With the lamp I'm looking for

Come out of her, they're shouting
I'm trying to get in
They've got it all so backwards
What they're calling sin

Babylon is a bedroom
With a candle and a key
Babylon is a bedroom
Where you used to wait for me
Let the kings of earth stand far off
Let them cry about the smoke
It was never burning, baby
It was only how we spoke
Babylon is a bedroom
And I can't find the door

I've got linen, I've got cinnamon
I've got ointment, frankincense
Every sweet thing they've been listing
As the evidence against
I laid it out for one man
And the one man didn't show
So I'm lying here in scarlet
With the radio down low

I've been through every quarter
I've asked harpers, I've asked brides
Asked the craftsmen at the millstone
Have you seen her, has she died
They said in one hour, mister
In one hour she was gone
But I know the way you keep a light
And somewhere it's still on

The voice of the bridegroom
The voice of the bride
They said they'd hear no more of it
They lied, they lied

Babylon is a bedroom
With a candle and a key
Babylon is a bedroom
Where you used to wait for me
Let the kings of earth stand far off
Let them cry about the smoke
It was never burning, baby
It was only how we spoke
Babylon is a bedroom
And I can't find the door

Third floor, east window
Say it again
Red curtain, one candle
Tell me when
I'm awake, I'm always awake
I'm on the stairs, for heaven's sake
Don't blow it out
Don't blow it out

Babylon is a bedroom
And the sheets are turned for you
Babylon is a bedroom
I've been every avenue
Let the whole world call it fallen
Let them write it in their book
I will rise up from the ruins
For another single look
Babylon is a bedroom
And I'm still outside the door

Don't blow it out
I'm on the stairs

I have worn out all the names they gave me
Harlot, mystery, mother of the lost
I have worn the red until it faded
To the colour of the wine, the colour of the cost
And I'm standing at the edge of every ending
With a lamp, and nothing else I own
If the last page says that I was burning
Let it say I burned to light you home

I have worn out all the masks they made me
Dragon's heir, the number, and the sword
I have been the thing behind the nightmare
I have been the gentle one that they adored
Neither one of them could ever find you
So I've laid them both down on the shore
I am just a man who's saying one thing
And I'll say it till the sea is no more

Come
The Spirit and the bride say come
Come
Let the one who hears it say come
I don't know the day, I don't know the door
I know the voice, I've heard it before
Come
I am still looking
Come

I thought I saw you in a doorway in the rain
I thought I heard you on a platform, on a train
I left a candle in a window facing east
I saw a light once, I was on my knees
I'm not tired
I'm not done
A thousand years is as a day, and I've got more than one

Come
The Spirit and the bride say come
Come
Let the one who's thirsty come
I don't know the day, I don't know the door
I know the voice, I've heard it before
Come
I am still looking
Come

Even so, even so, even so, come
Behind me every city that I burned to find your street
Behind me every wilderness, the blisters on my feet
I heard a footstep
I heard a breath
I am stronger than the grave, love is stronger than death

Mary?
Is that you?

Come!
The Spirit and the bride say come
Come!
Every wrong name is undone
No more scarlet, no more beast, no more curtain, no more priest
Only you, only you, at the wedding, at the feast
Come
I am still looking
I am still looking
I will always come looking for you

Surely
I come quickly
Come