Performance note: With the exception of the last stanza, the song follows a cyclical chord progression with an open-ended rhythm structure that is improvised in each performance.
Instrumental intro/vamp:
[: E5 / E5 / E5 / E5 Dmin :]
Em13 ---> E7 BmΔ7/A
(E5)
My sister's hands are like air;
I'm aware they're there,
but I can't see them.
Cadd4/E B/D
(E5) Em13
She holds a broken accordion
E7
that makes sounds like sea creatures
BmΔ7/A
speaking a secret language.
(E5) Cadd4/E B/D
Laughing like drunks at a wedding feast,
(E5)
the waves persuade me
to slowly wade deeper.
Em13
E7
"Why don't you speak plainly?"
I shout,
BmΔ7/A
my voice competing
with the chaos of 28
thousand million stars
Cadd4/E B/D
and their stolid armies
of vibrantly silent
holy harmonies.
Em13
E7
"Why must I learn to interpret
BmΔ7/A
the murmurs of sea creatures,
their barely perceptible pulses
from the darkest
coldest depths?"
(E5) Cadd4/E
The water is up to my waist now.
B/D
Her strange music
takes on a sacred cadence.
(E5)
And suddenly, a wave
washes me under,
and carries me
to an island
where fields of fresh lavender sway
to the slow beat
of Earth's
deeply
buried
thunder.
D/E ---> E7sus4 (freely for rest of song)
And I awake free
from sorrow
From sorrow
I'm free
From sorrow
I'm free