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

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

"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

"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

Kelsey Tribble

Kelsey Tribble earned a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. In Fall 2023, she will begin her M.A. in English at Western Washington University (WWU). She currently works at WWU an in-class transcriber with the Disability Access Center, but plans to leave this position in fall to teach English 101 to first-year students. When she’s not writing or reading, Kelsey can be found performing and recording music with her band candlepower, gardening, and grappling with the dilemmas of the 21st century human.