verse 1
C
From the top of the flight
Em C
Of the wide white stairs
Em C
Through the rest of my life
Em C
Do you wait for me there?
Em C
There's a bell in my ears
Em C
There's the wide white roar
Em C
Drop a bell down the stairs
Em C
Hear it fall forever mor
Em C
Hear it fall forevermore
G Em
Drop a bell off of the dock
G Em
Blot it out in the sea
G Em
Drowning mute as a rock
G Em
sounding mutiny
G
There's a light in the wings, hits this system of strings,
Em
from the side while they swing;
See the wires, the wires, the wires.
Verse
G
And the articulation in our elbows and knees
Em
Makes us buckle and we couple in endless increase
As the audience admires
G
And the little white dove
Made with love, made with love
Em
Made with glue and a glove and some pliers
G
Swings a low sickle arc from its perch in the dark
Em
Settle down, settle down my desire
D
And the moment I slept
C G
I was swept up in a terrible tremor
D C
Though no longer bereft, how I shook
Em
And i couldn't remember
D
And then the furthermost shake
Am
Drove a murdering stake in
C Em G
And cleft me right down through my center
D
And I shouldn't say so
C Em
But I know that it was then or never
G Em
Push me back into a tree
G Em
Bind my buttons with salt
G Em
Fill my long ears with bees
G
Braying 'please, please, please,
Em
Oh you ought not!
No you ought not!'
G
And then the system of strings tugs on the tip of my wings
Em
Cut from cardboard and old magazines
Makes me warble and rise like a sparrow.
G
And in the place where I stood
There is a circle of wood
Em
A quarter to which you chop and you stack in your barrow
G
And it is terribly good
To carry water and chop wood
Em
Streaked with soot, heavy booted and wild-eyed
G
As I crash through the rafters
And the ropes and the pulleys trail after
Em
And the holiest, holiest belfry burns sky high
Verse
D
And then a slow lip of fire
C G
Moves across the prairie with precision
C
While somewhere with your pliers and glue
Em
You make your first incision
D A
And in a moment of almost unbearable vision
C Em G
Doubled over with the hunger of lions
D
'Hold me close', cooed the dove
C Em
Who was stuffed now with sawdust and diamonds
Em D G
A C G
I wanted to say 'why the long face?'
A C G
Sparrow perch and play songs of long face
A C G
Burro buck and bray songs of long face
Am C
Sings 'i will swallow your sadness and eat your cold clay
G
Just to lift your long face
A C
And though it may be madness, I will take to the grave
G
Your precious long face
A C
& though our bones they may break & our souls separate
G
Why the long face?
A C
And though our bodies recoil from the grip of the soil
G
Why the long face?
Bridge
G Em
In the trough of the waves
G Em
Which are pawing like dogs
G Em
Pitch we, pale-faced and grave
G Em
As I write in my log.
G Em
Then I hear a noise from the hull
G Em
Seven days out to sea
G Em
And it is the damnable bell
G
And it tolls, I believe, that it tolls
Em
It tolls for me!
And it tolls for me!
G
And though my wrists and my waist
Seem so easy to break
Em
Still my dear I would've walked you to the edge of the water
G
And they will recognize all the lines of your face
Em
In the face of the daughter, of the daughter, of my daughter
G
And darling we will be fine
But what was yours and mine
Em
Appears to be a sandcastle that the gibbering wave takes
G
But if it's all just the same
Then say my name, say my name,
Em
in the morning so that i know when the wave breaks
D
I wasn't born of a whistle
C G
Or milked from a thistle at twilight
D
No, i was all horns and thorns
C Em
Sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright
D A
So enough of this terror we deserve to know light
C Em G
And grow evermore lighter and lighter
D
You would have seen me through
C Em
But I could not undo that desire
Coda
D C Em
Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh desire
D C Em
Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh desire
D C Em
Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh desire
Em C
From the top of the flight
Em C
Of the wide white stairs
Em C
Through the rest of my life
Em C
Do you wait for me there?