There are bridges over rivers There are moments of collapse There are drivers with their feet on the glass You can kick but you can't get out There is history in the rooms of the house
After dinner do the dishes Mother hums The coffee maker hisses on the stove The steam a crescendo The radio emergency bulletins and Everywhere wind
You took the train down to Terre Haute, Indiana Visit family, your childhood home Give your mother her grandkid and father a kiss Put your luggage in your bedroom, in the kitchen sit
With your husband still up in Hudsonville Until the weekend when his shift ends at the furniture mill Running water for the dishes and the coffee on the stove Heard a warning from the corner on the radio And the glass starts to rattle in the window frames
So you went underground Took the staircase down To the cellar full of hunting equipment Held your baby in your arms Read the labels on mason jars Tried not to think about your husband in Michigan
Stay calm Keep the radio loud Take care Wind howls Father piles blankets in the corner by the furnace Mother lights candles It's a miracle the baby doesn't cry
Back home, doing yard work outside Husband being stubborn under dark skies Saw the fence by the neighbor's shed split Saw the kitchen window start to bend in
So you went down to the back steps then to the basement There were bookshelf plans on the workbench And a flashlight shining bright all night Try not to think about your son and your wife And the lightning that scattered the night sky And the wind bursts that tore up the power lines At the workbench in the basement Where you sat and tried to wait out the night
You called for three straight days Still with your family back home Up in Hudsonville the worst of the storms touched ground And the phone lines were down Turn the radio up
There's a woman who got thrown from her car into a barbed wire fence She was six months pregnant Both her and the baby lived You tried but the line or...
I remember those nights I couldn't get through to you when quiet storms came rattled the window panes Couldn't keep a thing the same way when the storm blew in and the furniture rearranged I can see lightning there and a funnel cloud And her mother said, "I swear I saw lightning in your eyes When that call got through to the other side."
Stay calm Keep the radio loud Stay down There are bridges over rivers Sirens in the distant Wind howls Keep down Then After dinner do the dishes Mother hums Wires snap Metal gets twisted There's the rattle of the window glass Bending in Take the children down Terre Haute Coffee Thanksgiving Stay calm Keep down At the workbench Stay And the coffee maker hisses Stay calm Keep down Turn the radio There are There are moments of collapse
First Reactions After Falling Through the Ice Lyrics
By La Dispute
I knew it was far too late to walk out on the lake then Halfway to the middle thawed I wasn't doing all that great Had I cut my hair short? Had I grown my beard out long? Had I gone to school or...? Why do all my plans fall through? There's a leak in the basement Stupid permanent estrangement Casement windows need glazing Hinges and arms need be replaced All the way at the edge I said I think That we should head back What if now the ice cracked? Think I felt it bend We took opposite steps Tried to even the stress Picked a safe direction but You never know the way the ice thins Half-asleep in dreams where Ceilings start collapsing Free fall through the roof beams Get startled back awake Before you hit the pavement Floor of the foundation Water in the basement Bodies in the lake Don't panic I could hear you saying as I fell through Blackness complete down waiting till my feet touched ground At the bottom they finally did First reaction was this is it Next thought was just stay calm kick up And save your phone Because I wanted to tell you Because I thought you should know Because I thought it might scare you To see me under the ice Make you remember you cared for me What would you do if I died? Would you fly out for my funeral? Get too drunk at my wake? Would you make a scene then? Climb in and try to resuscitate me? I was on the ice and I was underwater I was getting pulled out, I was in my wet clothes Stumble on the walk back, someone stoked the fire at camp I was by the flames trying to get my body warm I was standing naked checking to see if my phone still worked I will cut my hair short Trust me, I will I will let my beard go Trust me, I will I will never tempt fate Not once, I swear I will never trust ice I will never trust a thing
Woman (In Mirror) Lyrics
By La Dispute
Where a bookshelf goes or a throw rug How you shape any common space And the language you make out of looks and names All the motions of ordinary love All the weight it can hold when you say one name All the motions of ordinary love They grow and change All the motions of ordinary love 4X In the bathroom off the kitchen Leave the door ajar in a brand new dress Let me watch put your make up on Let me in give me holy privileges There's a dinner thing Thanksgiving Dress up nice make a dish to bring There are moments here only yours and mine Tiny dots on an endless timeline Tiny dots on an endless timeline 4X In the mirror with your eyes wide Trace outlines ask for wine But you never look away when you do Your eyes don't move I never move mine from you And I watch you your reversal It's an honest thing when there's no one there Some days they feel like dress rehearsals Some days I watch and you don't care There's a dinner Thanksgiving Dress up nice make a dish to bring There are moments here only yours and mine Tiny dots on an endless timeline Tiny dots on an endless timeline Go on and on and on All the motions of ordinary love I know, I know All the motions of ordinary love I know, I know A glance back The small of yours On the sink where I set your glass A hand that rests there flat A moment Retracts And the recognition That you give When you shift position Move your hip Slightly in We say nothing then out loud and That's what feels the most profound And I watched you in that apartment somewhere from across the room But it's all a haze I remember vaguely lights then staring there to you It's the slowest days by the bathroom that somehow never seem to go Where I watched you put your make-up on The smallest sounds leave the clearest echoes All the motions of ordinary love 3X All the motions of ordinary love I know, I know All the motions of ordinary love All the motions of ordinary love I know, I know All the motions of ordinary love All the motions of ordinary love I know, I know All the motions of ordinary love All the motions of ordinary love I know, I know All the motions of ordinary love...
