SUNRISE, WITH SEA MONSTERS
(Music and lyrics by Julia Olivarez)
Poor old jawbone
back tooth aching like
the summary of everything
The pain goes searching
for places it doesn't belong
Look what happened
It followed me into a song
It won't be silenced
It won't be denied
and I can't hide from it at all
It's a cymbal crash in an empty hall
It's a chair that's dragged across a floor
It's an argument behind a door
Poor old Julie
You need comfort and sympathy
A lap to lay your head in quietly
I have a seashell
I want to crawl in just to hear the roar
of all the sea things
that aren't living in it anymore
The things that struggled to stay down
knowing air was what would make them drown
Knowing nothing but the blameless sea
Knowing nothing of poor old Julie
And I'd wear it like an ivory comb
and I'd love it like a second home
Each chamber secret as a human heart
Each chamber something setting us apart
Poor old world
Poor old jawbone
Poor old Julie
It's just a toothache but it hurts like hell
and is there pride in bearing up too well
No one asks and so I cannot tell
but it's such a pretty little shell
and pain is almost like the ocean's swell
and it sings, it sings, it sings
and it tells me fine and secret things
It's six am, I'm almost there
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