Friday 3 August 2012

Baby Birch by Joanna Newsom. Sob.




This is the song for Baby Birch,
I will never know you.
And at the back of what we've done
There is the knowledge of you.

I wish we could take every path,
I could spend a hundred years adoring you.
Yes, I wish we could take every path,
Because I hated to close the door on you.

Do you remember staring up at the stars
So far away in their bulletproof cars?
We heard the rushing, slow intake
Of the dark, dark water
And the engine breaks.

And I said
How about them engine breaks?
And, if I should die before I wake
Will you keep an eye on Baby Birch
Because I'd hate to see her
Make the same mistakes.

When it was dark I called and you came.
When it was dark I saw shapes.
When I see stars I feel in your hand,
And I see stars and I reel, again.

Well mercy me, I'll be goddamned,
It's been a long long time since I last saw you
And I have never known the plan.
It's been a long, long time, how are you?

Your eyes are green, your hair is gold,
Your hair is black, your eyes are blue.
I closed the ranks and I doubled back
But you know, I hated to close the door on you.

We take a walk along the dirty lake,
Hear the goose cussing at me over her eggs.
You poor little cousin,
I don't want your dregs,
A little baby fussing all over my legs.

There is a blacksmith and there is a shepherd and there is a butcher-boy
And there is a barber who's cutting and cutting away at my only joy,
I saw a rabbit as slick as a knife and as pale as a candlestick
And I had thought it'd be harder to do but I caught her and skinned her quick,
Held her there kicking and mewling, upended, unspooling, unsung and blue,
Told her "wherever you go, little runaway bunny I will find you"
And then she ran
As they're liable to do.

Be at peace, baby, and begone.

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