We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

D​ü​rer​’​s Rhinoceros

from The Warm, Dark Circus by Jack O' The Clock

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $2 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

lyrics

Strange that this place doesn’t spook me out,

but it doesn’t:

working the night shift locked away

under government ground,

roaming the stacks in a library of numbers,

feeding and changing all the big

number crunchers:

fear would be a signal

coming over the horizon.
 


Sometimes I wander to the heart of the “black forest”

where a sage sits in silicon

with its head in an eastern desert.

You know you can’t beat a steam drill

with a single iron spike,

so you lay down your tools and wait.

 
         And the clouds are blowing by

         —because I can feel them blowing by—

         If I could read, I would read them blowing by.
 


I know there is a language for the alphabet of weather.

I know that there are curves behind the numbers that I enter,

but you don’t get the vision of a raptor in the desert

without the hunger of a raptor.
 


There was a kid who worked here

who used to walk out in the hallways

and look at the postings on the doors:

bits of articles, cartoons and epigrams.

Dürer’s rhinoceros kept him coming back.

He said “I’ll never know how he could capture

such a likeness without ever laying eyes on one.”
 


I dreamed of a legless buffalo

as I nodded off for a moment

a couple of hours before the dawn;

I felt a piercing gaze lift me from my chair,

I felt the tail wag the dog.

Wait a minute now:

What resolution will turn a map to territory,

will melt spirit from the stones?

 
         And the clouds are blowing by

         —because I can feel them blowing by—

         If I could count I would count them blowing by.
 


There is no end to it.

My hands are busy, busy

ticking off seconds, seconds.

At dawn, when I roll down the mountain,

I don’t watch the road, I only look to the plains

where the sun appears at the head of a fleet of balloons

and I laugh, because it burns like a myth,

it howls like a bomb in the pit of my stomach

and I don’t know what’s coming.


 
         Take this hammer, bring it to my captain,

         tell him I’m gone.

credits

from The Warm, Dark Circus, released October 27, 2023
_______________________________________

Damon Waitkus - lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, hammer dulcimers, mandolin, guzheng, piano, percussion, electric taishogoto, glockenspiel, flute, whistle, synth


Emily Packard - violin, viola


Kate McLoughlin - bassoon


Jason Hoopes - bass


Jordan Glenn - drums, percussion, accordion


Thea Kelley - lead and backing vocals


Victor Reynolds - recorders, 12-string electric guitar, backing vocals


Ivor Holloway - alto and tenor saxophones


Josh Packard - cello

license

tags

about

Jack O' The Clock image

Jack O' The Clock Oakland, California

JACK O' THE CLOCK "presents a fine lesson on what it means to write songs that are at once approachable and human while simultaneously being incredibly profound in terms of timbre, depth of emotion, and harmonic complexity," Progulator.

contact / help

Contact Jack O' The Clock

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Jack O' The Clock, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring interviews with LA music scene pillar Kamasi Washington, and new London-based duo Mrcy.

listen now