Slip Away - Laurie Anderson

What’s this?

A little dust in my eye

Well I’m not the type to cry

It’s four a.m. I’m standing by the bed where you lie

Sleeping the sleep of the newborn

I put finger to your lips.

Warm air.

Five a.m. You lift your hand and open it.

Then you slipped away.

You slipped away.

Oh death, that creep, that crooked jerk…

He comes, he comes walking.

He comes sneaking

Down that long irreversible hallway

Grabs you in your sleep

I walk outside to the parking lot.

Bright coins of water on the sidewalk.

Big white building where your body lies

Stands in the middle of the fields.

Icy air.

And after all the shocks the way the heart unlocks

And ooo we slip away.

We slip away.

I’m thinking about the way that lost things always come back

Looking like something else

A fishing pole, a shoe, an old shirt, a lucky day

Ooo then they slip away into the remains of the day

Ooo they slip away.

They slip away.

I’m thinking how you taught me how to win

And how to loose

And how to fight the crippling blues that I was born with

Bad dreams and nightmares

Ooo they slip away.

Ooo they slip away into the remains of the day.

I know that sometime I’ll stop looking for you.

Stop seeing your face every day

Bad dreams and nightmares and big bad wolves

Ooo they slip away into the remains of the day

Ooo they slip away into the remains of the day

They slip away

You told me you had no idea how to die but I saw

The way the light left your eyes

And after all the shocks the way the heart unlocks

And ooo then you slipped away.

You slipped away.