You And Me, Bess

Song You And Me, Bess
Artist Joanna Newsom
Album Have One on Me

Lyrics

We picked our waydown to the beach,watching the wavesdragging out of our reach:tangling tails, like a sodden sheet;dangling entrailsfrom the gut of the sea.
Hoarding our meals (alfalfa and rolls);trying not to catchthe cold eyes of the gulls--
I hope Mother
Nature has notoverheard!(Though, she doles out hurtlike a puking bird.)
We stayed for the winter.
No-one told usabout the laws of the land.
I hold my own.
But you, with your hunger--you, on the other hand--make yourself known.
And when we were found,
I know we both grieved.
My heart made the sound ofsnow falling from eaves.
You and me,
Bess,we were as thick as thieves.
So I swore, nonetheless, up and down,it was only me.
They took me away,and, after some timestudying my case,must have made up their minds.
By the time you realized
I was dying,it must have been too late.
I believe you were not lying.
It is the day.
I wake,with my ears cocked up like a gun(like every day, of course),yanked by my wriststo the sugar-front courtyard--now tell me, what have
I done?It seems
I have stolen a horse.
I step to the gallows.
Who do you think you are--arching your hooves like a crane,in the shallow gutterthat lines the boulevards,crowded with folkswho just stare as
I hang?It's all the same.
Kindness comes over me;what was your name?
It makes no difference.
I'm glad that you came.
Forever, I'll listen to your glad neighing.