Music and lyrics by Damon Waitkus

Lyrics

There you are, standing pregnant in the snow
with your coffee and your kids.
I came to town on the same old bus –it felt
like cheating – just to watch your tear down your new house.
There goes my bathtub nursery.
There goes the front wall.
See that chair standing there in the bedroom?
Do you see a diorama of a dismal inner life?

Board of health: you’ve got snot all down your face,
get out of mine! Hold your nose.
Don’t you know, the plumbing goes
and water seeps between the field stones
inch by inch. But you get used to it
if you can keep your nose clean.
For every broken stair of can of oil my old man spilled
I’d walk into the woods and choose a beautiful new sprout.

No one touches me at home in the bosky shade,
and no one touches me at the University
when I walk at night and touch the whole damn world.

I hear you scratching in your hungry white houses,
pullulating in the dark, and see you glancing at the crazy old man
who sits all day in his car, wondering:
How did he ever hold a job at the University?
Are they ever going to fix the Nova?
And did you see that dog rotting there in the back yard brush?
Do you feel the sinking dread of flooding in the spring?

You know I used to look at girls from the bosky shade
and they would look at me at the University
when I walked at night, but there wasn’t much to see.

The street is quiet. The old man’s gone:
An end to fear and ire. A weight is lifted,
or so you say. I think that you’re a liar.

And who was he, you think: never spoke except to scream,
and he scared the little kids. But you know they were curious:
they always came around on Halloween,
and I climbed the stairs and hid.
I could have killed the old man!
I could have killed him every day that he
opened up that door and let them gawk
at all my plants. I could have killed him
but, you know, that’s just a figure of speech.

Someone has to grab the torch
and wash this street in fire. The kids play clean now,
or so you say. I think that you’re a liar.

No one touches me at home in the bosky shade,
and no one touches me at the University
when I walk at night and touch the whole damn world.

Personnel

DW – voice, acoustic guitar, piano
EP – 5-string violin
KM – bassoon
JH – electric bass, voice
JG – drums, pots and pans
Nicci Reisnour – harp, wine glasses