Only Skin - Joanna Newsom

And there was a booming above you 
That night, black airplanes flew over the sea 
And they were lowing and shifting like 
Beached whales 
Shelled snails 
As you strained and you squinted to see 
The retreat of their hairless and blind cavalry 

You froze in your sand shoal 
Prayed for your poor soul 
Sky was a bread roll, soaking in a milk-bowl 
And when the bread broke, fell in bricks of wet smoke 
My sleeping heart woke, and my waking heart spoke 

Then there was a silence you took to mean something: 
Mean, run, sing 
For alive you will evermore be 
And the plague of the greasy black engines a-skulkin' 
Has gone east 
While you're left to explain them to me 
Released from their hairless and blind cavalry 

With your hands in your pockets, stubbily running 
To where I'm unfresh, undressed and yawning 
Well, what is this craziness? This crazy talking? 
You caught some small death when you were sleepwalking 

It was a dark dream, darlin', it's over 
The firebreather is beneath the clover 
Beneath his breathing there is cold clay, forever 
A toothless hound-dog choking on a feather 

But I took my fishingpole (fearing your fever) 
Down to the swimminghole, where there grows bitter herb 
That blooms but one day a year by the riverside - i'd bring it here: 
Apply it gently 
To the love you've lent me 

While the river was twisting and braiding, the bait bobbed 
And the string sobbed, as it cut through the hustling breeze 
And I watched how the water was kneading so neatly 
Gone treacly 
Nearly slowed to a stop in this heat 
- frenzy coiling flush along the muscles beneath 

Press on me: we are restless things 
Webs of seaweed are swaddling 
You call upon the dusk 
Of the musk of a squid 
Shot full of ink, until you sink into your crib 

Rowing along, among the reeds, among the rushes 
I heard your song, before my heart had time to hush it! 
Smell of a stone fruit being cut and being opened 
Smell of a low and of a lazy cinder smoking 

And when the fire moves away 
Fire moves away, son 
Why would you say 
I was the last one? 

Scrape your knee; it is only skin 
Makes the sound of violins 
When you cut my hair, and leave the birds the trimmings 
I am the happiest woman among all women 

And the shallow 
Water 
Stretches as far as I can see 
Knee-deep, trudging along 
A seagull weeps; "so long" 

I'm humming a threshing song 
Until the night is over 
Hold on! 
Hold on! 
Hold your horses back from the fickle dawn 

I have got some business out at the edge of town 
Candy weighing both of my pockets down 
'Til I can hardly stay afloat, from the weight of them 
(and knowing how the common-folk condemn 
What it is I do, to you, to keep you warm 
Being a woman, being a woman) 

But always up the mountainside you're clambering 
Groping blindly, hungry for anything: 
Picking through your pocket linings - well, what is this? 
Scrap of sassafras, eh sisyphus? 

I see the blossoms broke and wet after the rain 
Little sister, he will be back again 
I have washed a thousand spiders down the drain 
Spiders ghosts hang soaked and dangelin' 
Silently from all the blooming cherry trees 
In tiny nooses, safe from everyone 
- nothing but a nuisance; gone now, dead and done 
Be a woman, be a woman! 

Though we felt the spray of the waves 
We decided to stay till the tide rose too far 
We weren't afraid, cause we know what you are 
And you know that we know what you are 

Awful atoll 
O, incalculable indiscreetness and sorrow! 
Bawl, bellow: 
Sibyl sea-cow, all done up in a bow 

Toddle and roll; 
Teeth an impalpable bit of leather 
While yarrow, heather and hollyhock 
Awkwardly molt along the shore 

Are you mine? 
My heart? 
Mine anymore? 

Stay with me for awhile 
That's an awfully real gun 
I know life will lay you down 
As the lightning has lately done 

Failing this, failing this, 
Follow me, my sweetest friend 
To see what you anointed in pointing your gun there 

Lay it down! Nice and slow! 
There is nowhere to go, save up 
Up where the light, undiluted, is weaving in a drunk dream 
At the sight of my baby, out back: 
Back on the patio watching the bats bring night in 
- while, elsewhere, estuaries of wax-white 
Wend, endlessly, towards seashores unmapped 

Last week our picture window produced a half-word 
Heavy and hollow, hit by a brown bird 
We stood and watched her gape like a rattlesnake 
And pant and labour over every intake 

I said a sort of prayer for some sort of rare grace 
Then thought I ought to take her to a higher place 
Said: "dog nor vulture nor cat shall toy with you 
And though you die, bird, you will have a fine view" 

Then in my hot hand 
She slumped her sick weight 
We tramped through the poison oak 
Heartbroke and inchoate 

The dogs were snapping 
So you cuffed their collars 
While I climbed the tree-house 
Then how I hollered! 
Cause she'd lain, as still as a stone, in my palm, for a lifetime or two 

Then, saw the treetops, cocked her head and up and flew 
(while, back in the world that moves, often 
According to the hoarding of these clues 
Dogs still run roughly around 
Little tufts of finch-down) 

The cities we passed were a flickering wasteland 
But his hand in my hand made them hale and harmless 
While down in the lowlands the crops are all coming; 
We have everything 
Life is thundering blissful towards death 
In a stampede of his fumbling green gentleness 

You stopped by, I was all alive 
In my doorway, we shucked and jived 
And when you wept, I was gone: 
See, I got gone when I got wise 
But I can't with certainty say we survived 

Then down, and down 
And down, and down 
And down, and deeper 
Stoke without sound 
The blameless flames 
You endless sleeper 

Through fire below, and fire above, and fire within 
Sleeped through the things that couldn't have been if you hadn't have been 

And when the fire moves away 
Fire moves away, son 
Why would you say 
I was the last one? 

All my bones they are gone, gone, gone 
Take my bones, I don't need none 
Cold, cold cupboard, lord, nothing to chew on! 
Suck all day on a cherry stone 

Dig a little hole, not three inches round 
Spit your pit in the hole in the ground 
Weep upon the spot for the starving of me! 
Till up grow a fine young cherry tree 

Well when the bough breaks, what'll you make for me? 
A little willow cabin to rest on your knee 
What'll I do with a trinket such as this? 
Think of your woman, who's gone to the west 

But I'm starving and freezing in my measly old bed! 
Then i'll crawl across the salt flats to stroke your sweet head 
Come across the desert with no shoes on! 
I love you truly, or I love no-one 

Fire 
Moves 
Away 

Fire moves away, son 
Why would you say 
I was the last one? 

Clear the room! There's a fire, a fire, a fire 
Get going, and I'm going to be right behind you 
And if the love of a woman or two, dear, 
Couldn't move you to such heights, then all I can do 
Is do, my darling, right by you