Colleen - Joanna Newsom

I tell it as I best know how

And that’s the way it was told to me: I

Must have once been a thief or a whore

Then surely was thrown overboard

Where, they say

I came their way from the deep blue sea

It picked me up and tossed me round

I lost my shoes and tore my gown

I forgot my name

And drowned

Then woke up with the surf a-pounding;

It seemed I had been run aground

Well they took me in and shod my feet

And taught me prayers for chastity

And said my name would be Colleen, and

I was blessed among all women

To have forgotten everything

And as the weeks and months ensued

I tried to make myself of use

I tilled and planted, but could not produce--

Not root, nor leaf, nor flower, nor bean;

Lord!

It seemed I overwatered everything

And I hate the sight of that empty air

Like stepping for a missing stair

And falling forth forever blindly:

Cannot grab hold of anything!

No

Not I, most blessed among Colleens

I dream some nights of a funny sea

As soft as a newly born baby

It cries for me so pitifully!

And I dive for my child with a wildness in me

And am so sweetly there received

But last night came a different dream:

A gray and sloping-shouldered thing

Said «What's cinched 'round your waist, Colleen?

Is that my very own baleen?

No!

Have you forgotten everything?»

This morning, 'round the cape at dawn

Some travellers sailed into town

With scraps for sale and the saddest songs

And a book of pictures, leather-bound, that

Showed a whale with a tusk a metre long

I asked the man who showed it me

«What is the name of that strange beast?»

He said its name translated roughly to

He-Who-Easily-Can-Curve-Himself-Against-The-Sky

And I am without words

He said «My lady looks perturbed

(the light is in your eyes, Colleen).»

I said, «Whatever can you mean?»

He leaned in and said

«You ain’t forgotten everything.»

«You dare to speak a lady’s name?»

He said, «My lady is mistaken

I would not speak your name in this place;

For if I were to try then the wind--I swear--

Would rise, to tear you clean from me without a trace.»

«Have you come, then, to rescue me?»

He laughed and said, «From what, 'colleen'?

You dried and dressed most willingly

You corseted, and caught the dread disease

By which one comes to know such peace.»

Well, it’s true that I came to know such things as

The laws that govern property

And the herbs to feed the babes that wean

The welting weight for every season;

But still

I don’t know any goddamned «Colleen»

Then dive down there with the lights to lead

That seem to shine from everything--

Down to the bottom of the deep blue sea;

Down where your heart beats so slow

And you never in your life have felt so free

Will you come down there with me?

Down where our bodies start to seem like

Artifacts of some strange dream

Which afterwards you can’t decipher

And so, soon, have forgotten

Everything