Let me tell you of the way the world could be - the way of love - this is the way of all things:
In darkness, even water becomes one with sky.
Together, we are liberated from the pain of those abandoned by their forefathers; together, there is no resistance to our scope.
in the distance, a call to light -
- dawn is the opal in which all colours burn -
- dawn is the emptiness of all things -
- and you are loved as the black-headed gulls are loved by the currents, as the deepest trenches of the oceans are loved by silence - one of seven billion human organisms, you are loved.

Copyright Antonella Gambotto-Burke

On the bones of whores, I lay in clover
Just to feel a little closer to my soul
As in the distance, great ships pulled over
With their cargoes of sugar, Zoloft, and coal

There's no morning
There's no morning
Without you

My heart is calling
Yeah, it's calling
To you

Butterfly sluiced in petroleum, I flew
Through the glitter of salt water dawns
Waking in the arms of men I thought I knew
Until the sun was swallowed by sandstorms

There's no morning
There's no morning
Without you

My heart is calling
Oh, it's calling
To you

Your face, your name
Hold me and never let go again
Your face, your name
Hold me and never let go again

Hotel window unfolds into a car park
Night and its diode light intelligence
That cylinder of flames above your heart
Blazing blue and white in vengeance

There's no morning
There's no morning
Without you

My heart is calling
Oh, it's calling
To you

My heart is calling
Oh, it's calling
To you

My heart is calling
Out to you

Copyright Antonella Gambotto-Burke

Have you ever been under the thumb of a man 
Known the hand and the arm of a man
Even white girls can be black and blue
And you thought it was only you

Have you ever known the anger of a man
The cruel phantasmagoria of a man
I was his but he was free 
Only rich girls get to tag #metoo, you see

It’s a river running wild, I tell you
For a woman and a child

Have you ever taken the name of a man
Had your body changed by, borne a child to, a man
He took all my swag and repaid me with deceit
I took a suitcase and his baby, and I voted with my feet

It’s a river running wild, I tell you
For a woman and a child

No more will they pump my stomach 'cos of a man
No more will I be kicked down the stairs by a man
Maybe I’ll disappear over the horizon 
But until I say I’m done, I won’t ever be done

It’s a river running wild, I tell you
For a woman and a child

It’s a river running wild, I tell you
For a woman and a child

It's a river running wild
For a woman and a child

Copyright Antonella Gambotto-Burke

Sometimes I think I have a jones for losing
I didn’t know it could extend to you
Oh, yeah - so I’ve a history of using 
I like to fly ‘cos when I land, I’m blue

I can’t see straight for crying
Don’t know where it hurts most 
Every day, I wake up dying 
I’m a ghost, I’m a ghost, I’m a ghost

Candle on the table never had a wick 
Why don’t you light the propane? you said
I’d’ve turned the world over if you'd wanted it
But now you’ve gone, I can’t get out of bed

I can’t see straight for crying
Don’t know where it hurts most
Every day, I wake up dying
I’m a ghost, I’m a ghost, I’m a ghost

Oh, I'm on the ropes
My eyes are closed
Ain't nothing left to see
Why did you shake me free
Oh, why'd ya, why'd ya shake me free

Skin is mute until it starts bleeding 
Bathroom’s too white and the lights look like teeth
I’m colder than the walls from needling
Through to all that lies underneath

Copyright Antonella Gambotto-Burke

It was always you

I watched a man fall and die burning
In the light of a pitiless sun
Car radio playing Led Zeppelin
Enter the dragon

That fish twisting for air
You brought a rock down on its head
A yacht, a pharmaceutical heir
The scorpion on my bed

It couldn’t last 
It couldn’t last

Blood on your hands
These were our blood lands
Bloodlands
Bloodlands
Bloodlands
Bloodlands

Highway a river of methadone 
Tears on my iced Coke
The way the light caught your cheekbone
You said, if it ain’t broke

It couldn’t last
It couldn’t last

I lay in the red dust
Immortal, with a halo made of broken glass
You were all that was left of me, of us
The unforgivable had come to pass

Blood on your hands
These were our blood lands
Bloodlands
Bloodlands
Bloodlands
Bloodlands

Blood on your hands
These were our blood lands
Bloodlands
Bloodlands
Bloodlands
Bloodlands

Oh, man of war
Man of hate
Oh, man of desecration

Blood on your hands
Blood on your hands
Blood on your hands

Blood on your - blood on your hands

Copyright Antonella Gambotto-Burke

Do you remember my hand in yours
A naked man with the head of a horse 
That balcony over a sea of remorse
And the jealous god in me, of course

Maybe that was the day we died 
Fugitives under a dog rose sky 
Lingering as the trains cried
Your fingertips, nicotine butterflies

Maybe you always were love’s has-been 
The intervals you scorned, and my dreams

On a bridge too fragile for anything but light
You were Agamemnon, a hundred feet high
Forgiveness, you said, is a right
But where I come from, it’s an eye for an eye

Maybe you always were love’s has-been
The intervals you scorned, and my dreams

Maybe you always were love’s has-been 
The intervals you scorned, and my dreams 
 

Copyright Antonella Gambotto-Burke

She picks you up in Kensington Park
Strung out on sertraline, she stares out the sun
Never trust what comes alive in the dark
Hey, she says, you look like you could do with some love

Some love, some love 
Yeah, if you can call it love

Some love, some love 
Only you could call it love

Truth, to her, is a moveable feast
Your wand’s over a cup, gentle defeatist 
I watched you drown in the weeds
She flickers in the spaces between your needs

Some love, some love, 
Yeah, if you can call it love

Some love, some love
Only you could call it love

You love the astigmatic smear of meteors
You love the silver filigree of scars
It stops you remembering the night your father 
You only come alive in the dark

In the dark

In the dark

Some love, some love
Yeah, if you can call it love

Some love, some love 
Only you could call this love

Copyright Antonella Gambotto-Burke

Your mouth is a Venus fly trap

Your eyes are glacier blue

I want you even though I know

There ain't no badder boy than you  


The way you move, just like the serpent

That broke Adam and Eve in two

Everything I got - oh, baby, hammer it

Lust is the anvil and my heart, the horse shoe  


If the road of excess leads to wisdom

Then I'm Solomon times two

Forget all pain when you call my name

Ain't nothing I wouldn't let you do    

Guess I shoulda learned my lesson

Guess I'm a slow learner, too

Lies are the trademark of the Lord of Flies

So you know, I gotta live in truth  


Ah oh

Rise and meet the wave  
As Mama used to say

As Mama used to say

Oh, I, I, I

Swear I'm gonna die, die, die

If I can't have you 

Oh, I, I, I

Swear I'm gonna die, die, die

If I can't have you 

Oh, I, I, I

Swear I'm gonna die, die, die

If I can't have you 

If I can't have you

If I can't have you

Copyright Antonella Gambotto-Burke