only skin .
F Am
and there was a booming above you
G F Am
that night , black airplanes flew over the sea
F Am
and they were lowing and shifting like
beached whales
G F
shelled snails
Am
as you strained and you squinted to see
G F Am
the retreat of their hairless and blind cavalry
G Em7 D
you froze in your sand shoal
C A#
prayed for your poor soul
F C A# Dm
sky was a bread roll , soaking in a milk – bowl
Em7 D C A#
and when the bread broke , fell in bricks of wet smoke
F C A# Dm
my sleeping heart woke , and my waking heart spoke
F Am
then there was a silence you took to mean something :
G F
mean , run , sing
Am G
for alive you will evermore be
F Am
and the plague of the greasy black engines A – skulkin’
G F
has gone east
G Am
while you’re left to explain them to me
G F Am
released from their hairless and blind cavalry
G Em7 D C A#
with your hands in your pockets , stubbily running
F C A# Dm
to where i’m unfresh , undressed and yawning
Em7 D C A#
well , what is this craziness? this crazy talking?
F C A# Dm
you caught some small death when you were sleepwalking
A Em D A
it was a dark dream , darlin’ , it’s over
F C A# Dm
the firebreather is beneath the clover
A Em D A
beneath his breathing there is cold clay , forever
F C A# Dm
a toothless hound – dog choking on a feather
F#m A Bm D
but i took my fishingpole ( fearing your fever )
F#m A Bm D
down to the swimminghole , where there grows a bitter herb
F#m A Bm BBadd6
that blooms but one day a year by the riverside – i’d bring it here :
F C
apply it gently
A# Dm
to the love you’ve lent me
F Am
while the river was twisting and braiding , the bait bobbed
G F Am G
and the string sobbed , as it cut through the hustling breeze
F Am
and i watched how the water was kneading so neatly
G F
gone treacly
Am
nearly slowed to a stop in this heat
G F Am G
– frenzy coiling flush along the muscles beneath
Am C Em G
press on me : we are restless things
Am C Em G
webs of seaweed are swaddling
Am C
you call upon the dusk
Em G
of the musk of a squid
Am C Em G
shot full of ink , until you sink into your crib
Dm F Am C
rowing along , among the reeds , among the rushes
Dm F C Am7
i heard your song , before my heart had time to hush it!
Dm F Am C
smell of a stone fruit being cut and being opened
Dm F C Am7
smell of a low and of a lazy cinder smoking
C G C G/B
and when the fire moves away
Am G F
fire moves away , son
C G C G/B
why would you say
Am G F
i was the last one?
Fm7
Am C Em G
scrape your knee; it is only skin
Am C Em G
makes the sound of violins
Am C Em G
when i cut your hair , and leave the birds all of the trimmings
Am C Em G
i’m the happiest woman among all women!
C#
and the shallow
Fm
water
C#m7 Fm
stretches as far as i can see
C# D#/C#
knee – deep , trudging along
C# Fm
a seagull weeps; “so long”
C# Fm
humming a threshing song
Fm
until the night is over
hold on!
hold on!
C#
hold your horses back from the fickle dawn
Fm
i have got some business out at the edge of town
C#
candy weighing both of my pockets down
Fm
’til i can hardly stay afloat , from the weight of them
C#
( and knowing how the common – folk condemn
Fm
what it is i do , to you , to keep you warm
C#
being a woman , being a woman )
A#m
but always up the mountainside you’re clambering
C#
groping blindly , hungry for anything
A#m
picking through your pocket linings – well , what is this?
C# D#
scrap of sassafras , eh sisyphus?
Fm
i see the blossoms broke and wet after the rain
C#
little sister , he will be back again
Fm
i have washed a thousand spiders down the drain
C#
spiders ghosts hang soaked and dangeling
A#m
silently from all the blooming cherry trees
C#
in tiny nooses , safe from everyone
A#m
– nothing but a nuisance; gone now , dead and done
C# D#
be a woman , be a woman!
Fm
though we felt the spray of the waves
A#m G# Gmdim
we decided to stay ’til the tide rose too far
Fm A#m
we weren’t afraid , ’cause we know what you are
Am Bmb Cmadd6
and you know that we know what you are
awful atoll
D# C#m7add11
– o , incalculable indiscreetness and sorrow
bawl , bellow :
Fm Cmadd6
sibyl sea – cow , all done up in a bow
toddle and roll;
D#
teeth an impalpable bit of leather
C#m7add11
while yarrow , heather and hollyhock
Fm D# Fm
awkwardly molt along the shore
C#
are you mine?
Fm C#
my heart?
mine anymore?
F C#
stay with me for a while
F
that’s an awfully real gun
C#
i know life will lay you down
F
as the lightning has lately done
Am
failing this , failing this ,
C G
follow me , my sweetest friend
F G/F Am
to see what you anointed in pointing your gun there
C
lay it down! nice and slow!
G F
there is nowhere to go , save up
Am G F
up where the light , undiluted , is weaving in a drunk dream
Am G F
at the sight of my baby , out back
Am G F
back on the patio watching the bats bring night in
Am G
while , elsewhere , estuaries of wax – white
F Am G
wend , endlessly , towards seashores unmapped
Em7 D C A#
last week our picture window produced a half – word
F C A# Dm
heavy and hollow , hit by a brown bird
Em7 D C A#
we stood and watched her gape like a rattlesnake
F C A# Dm
and pant and labour over every intake
A Em D A
i said a sort of prayer for some sort of rare grace
F C A# Dm
then thought i ought to take her to a higher place
A Em D A
said : “dog nor vulture nor cat shall toy with you
F C A# Dm
and though you die , bird , you will have a fine view”
F#m A
then in my hot hand
Bm D
she slumped her sick weight
F#m A
we tramped through the poison oak
Bm D
heartbroke and inchoate
F#m A
the dogs were snapping
Bm D
so you cuffed their collars
F#m A
while i climbed the tree – house
Bm D
then how i hollered!
F#m A Bm BBadd6
cause she’d lain , as still as a stone , in my palm , for a lifetime or two
F C A# Dm
then , saw the treetops , cocked her head and up and flew away and
F#m A
back in the world that moves , often
A# BBadd6
according to the hoarding of these clues
Fm7 C
dogs still run roughly around
A# Dm
little tufts of finch – down )
F Am
and the cities we passed were a flickering wasteland
G F Am G F
but his hand in my hand made them hale and harmless
Am
while down in the lowlands the crops are all coming
F
we have everything
Am
life is thundering blissful towards death
G F Am G
in a stampede of his fumbling green gentleness
Am C Em G
you stopped by , i was all alive
Am C Em G
in my doorway , we shucked and jived
Am C
and when you wept , i was gone :
Em G
see , i got gone when i got wise
Am C Em G
but i can’t with certainty say we survived
Dm F
then down , and down
Am
and down , and down
C
and down , and deeper
Dm F
stoke without sound
C
the blameless flames
Am7
you endless sleeper
Dm F Am C
through fire below , and fire above , and fire within
Dm F C Am7
sleeped through the things that couldn’t have been if you hadn’t have been
C G C
and when the fire moves away
Am G F
fire moves away , son
G C G G/B
why would you say
Am G F
i was the last one?
Am C Em G
all my bones they are gone , gone , gone
Am C G Dm
take my bones , i don’t need none
Am C Em G
cold , cold cupboard , lord , nothing to chew on!
Am C G F
suck all day on a cherry stone
Am C Em G
dig a little hole , not three inches round
Am C G Dm
spit your pit in the hole in the ground
Am C Em G
weep upon the spot for the starving of me!
Am C G F
till up grow a fine young cherry tree
Am C Em G
well when the bough breaks , what’ll you make for me?
Am C G Dm
a little willow cabin to rest on your knee
Am C Em G
what’ll i do with a trinket such as this?
Am C G F
think of your woman , who’s gone to the west
Am C Em G
but i’m starving and freezing in my measly old bed!
Am C G Dm
then i’ll crawl across the salt flats to stroke your sweet head
Am C Em G
come across the desert with no shoes on!
Am C G F
i love you truly , or i love no – one
Fm7 Am
fire
moves
away
Fm7
fire moves away , son
why would you say
Fm7
i was the last one?
Am G
last one . .
clear the room! there’s a fire , a fire , a fire
Am G
get going , and i’m going to be right behind you
F Am G
and if the love of a woman or two , dear ,
F Am
couldn’t move you to such heights , then all i can do
G F Am
is do , my darling , right by you
only skin .
F Am
and there was a booming above you
G F Am
that night , black airplanes flew over the sea
F Am
and they were lowing and shifting like
beached whales
G F
shelled snails
Am
as you strained and you squinted to see
G F Am
the retreat of their hairless and blind cavalry
G Em7 D
you froze in your sand shoal
C A#
prayed for your poor soul
F C A# Dm
sky was a bread roll , soaking in a milk – bowl
Em7 D C A#
and when the bread broke , fell in bricks of wet smoke
F C A# Dm
my sleeping heart woke , and my waking heart spoke
F Am
then there was a silence you took to mean something :
G F
mean , run , sing
Am G
for alive you will evermore be
F Am
and the plague of the greasy black engines A – skulkin’
G F
has gone east
G Am
while you’re left to explain them to me
G F Am
released from their hairless and blind cavalry
G Em7 D C A#
with your hands in your pockets , stubbily running
F C A# Dm
to where i’m unfresh , undressed and yawning
Em7 D C A#
well , what is this craziness? this crazy talking?
F C A# Dm
you caught some small death when you were sleepwalking
A Em D A
it was a dark dream , darlin’ , it’s over
F C A# Dm
the firebreather is beneath the clover
A Em D A
beneath his breathing there is cold clay , forever
F C A# Dm
a toothless hound – dog choking on a feather
F#m A Bm D
but i took my fishingpole ( fearing your fever )
F#m A Bm D
down to the swimminghole , where there grows a bitter herb
F#m A Bm BBadd6
that blooms but one day a year by the riverside – i’d bring it here :
F C
apply it gently
A# Dm
to the love you’ve lent me
F Am
while the river was twisting and braiding , the bait bobbed
G F Am G
and the string sobbed , as it cut through the hustling breeze
F Am
and i watched how the water was kneading so neatly
G F
gone treacly
Am
nearly slowed to a stop in this heat
G F Am G
– frenzy coiling flush along the muscles beneath
Am C Em G
press on me : we are restless things
Am C Em G
webs of seaweed are swaddling
Am C
you call upon the dusk
Em G
of the musk of a squid
Am C Em G
shot full of ink , until you sink into your crib
Dm F Am C
rowing along , among the reeds , among the rushes
Dm F C Am7
i heard your song , before my heart had time to hush it!
Dm F Am C
smell of a stone fruit being cut and being opened
Dm F C Am7
smell of a low and of a lazy cinder smoking
C G C G/B
and when the fire moves away
Am G F
fire moves away , son
C G C G/B
why would you say
Am G F
i was the last one?
Fm7
Am C Em G
scrape your knee; it is only skin
Am C Em G
makes the sound of violins
Am C Em G
when i cut your hair , and leave the birds all of the trimmings
Am C Em G
i’m the happiest woman among all women!
C#
and the shallow
Fm
water
C#m7 Fm
stretches as far as i can see
C# D#/C#
knee – deep , trudging along
C# Fm
a seagull weeps; “so long”
C# Fm
humming a threshing song
Fm
until the night is over
hold on!
hold on!
C#
hold your horses back from the fickle dawn
Fm
i have got some business out at the edge of town
C#
candy weighing both of my pockets down
Fm
’til i can hardly stay afloat , from the weight of them
C#
( and knowing how the common – folk condemn
Fm
what it is i do , to you , to keep you warm
C#
being a woman , being a woman )
A#m
but always up the mountainside you’re clambering
C#
groping blindly , hungry for anything
A#m
picking through your pocket linings – well , what is this?
C# D#
scrap of sassafras , eh sisyphus?
Fm
i see the blossoms broke and wet after the rain
C#
little sister , he will be back again
Fm
i have washed a thousand spiders down the drain
C#
spiders ghosts hang soaked and dangeling
A#m
silently from all the blooming cherry trees
C#
in tiny nooses , safe from everyone
A#m
– nothing but a nuisance; gone now , dead and done
C# D#
be a woman , be a woman!
Fm
though we felt the spray of the waves
A#m G# Gmdim
we decided to stay ’til the tide rose too far
Fm A#m
we weren’t afraid , ’cause we know what you are
Am Bmb Cmadd6
and you know that we know what you are
awful atoll
D# C#m7add11
– o , incalculable indiscreetness and sorrow
bawl , bellow :
Fm Cmadd6
sibyl sea – cow , all done up in a bow
toddle and roll;
D#
teeth an impalpable bit of leather
C#m7add11
while yarrow , heather and hollyhock
Fm D# Fm
awkwardly molt along the shore
C#
are you mine?
Fm C#
my heart?
mine anymore?
F C#
stay with me for a while
F
that’s an awfully real gun
C#
i know life will lay you down
F
as the lightning has lately done
Am
failing this , failing this ,
C G
follow me , my sweetest friend
F G/F Am
to see what you anointed in pointing your gun there
C
lay it down! nice and slow!
G F
there is nowhere to go , save up
Am G F
up where the light , undiluted , is weaving in a drunk dream
Am G F
at the sight of my baby , out back
Am G F
back on the patio watching the bats bring night in
Am G
while , elsewhere , estuaries of wax – white
F Am G
wend , endlessly , towards seashores unmapped
Em7 D C A#
last week our picture window produced a half – word
F C A# Dm
heavy and hollow , hit by a brown bird
Em7 D C A#
we stood and watched her gape like a rattlesnake
F C A# Dm
and pant and labour over every intake
A Em D A
i said a sort of prayer for some sort of rare grace
F C A# Dm
then thought i ought to take her to a higher place
A Em D A
said : “dog nor vulture nor cat shall toy with you
F C A# Dm
and though you die , bird , you will have a fine view”
F#m A
then in my hot hand
Bm D
she slumped her sick weight
F#m A
we tramped through the poison oak
Bm D
heartbroke and inchoate
F#m A
the dogs were snapping
Bm D
so you cuffed their collars
F#m A
while i climbed the tree – house
Bm D
then how i hollered!
F#m A Bm BBadd6
cause she’d lain , as still as a stone , in my palm , for a lifetime or two
F C A# Dm
then , saw the treetops , cocked her head and up and flew away and
F#m A
back in the world that moves , often
A# BBadd6
according to the hoarding of these clues
Fm7 C
dogs still run roughly around
A# Dm
little tufts of finch – down )
F Am
and the cities we passed were a flickering wasteland
G F Am G F
but his hand in my hand made them hale and harmless
Am
while down in the lowlands the crops are all coming
F
we have everything
Am
life is thundering blissful towards death
G F Am G
in a stampede of his fumbling green gentleness
Am C Em G
you stopped by , i was all alive
Am C Em G
in my doorway , we shucked and jived
Am C
and when you wept , i was gone :
Em G
see , i got gone when i got wise
Am C Em G
but i can’t with certainty say we survived
Dm F
then down , and down
Am
and down , and down
C
and down , and deeper
Dm F
stoke without sound
C
the blameless flames
Am7
you endless sleeper
Dm F Am C
through fire below , and fire above , and fire within
Dm F C Am7
sleeped through the things that couldn’t have been if you hadn’t have been
C G C
and when the fire moves away
Am G F
fire moves away , son
G C G G/B
why would you say
Am G F
i was the last one?
Am C Em G
all my bones they are gone , gone , gone
Am C G Dm
take my bones , i don’t need none
Am C Em G
cold , cold cupboard , lord , nothing to chew on!
Am C G F
suck all day on a cherry stone
Am C Em G
dig a little hole , not three inches round
Am C G Dm
spit your pit in the hole in the ground
Am C Em G
weep upon the spot for the starving of me!
Am C G F
till up grow a fine young cherry tree
Am C Em G
well when the bough breaks , what’ll you make for me?
Am C G Dm
a little willow cabin to rest on your knee
Am C Em G
what’ll i do with a trinket such as this?
Am C G F
think of your woman , who’s gone to the west
Am C Em G
but i’m starving and freezing in my measly old bed!
Am C G Dm
then i’ll crawl across the salt flats to stroke your sweet head
Am C Em G
come across the desert with no shoes on!
Am C G F
i love you truly , or i love no – one
Fm7 Am
fire
moves
away
Fm7
fire moves away , son
why would you say
Fm7
i was the last one?
Am G
last one . .
clear the room! there’s a fire , a fire , a fire
Am G
get going , and i’m going to be right behind you
F Am G
and if the love of a woman or two , dear ,
F Am
couldn’t move you to such heights , then all i can do
G F Am
is do , my darling , right by you
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