Dirt & Voltage Lyrics

Places keep their memories

As they sleep they hum melodies

They come to us as ghosts and dangers

You should belong here but you are a stranger

We are dirt and voltage

By the time I'd realized you had without speaking

Taught me the true nature of things

I was halfway across the country

Hitching a ride out of Taos with a saxophone on my back

Thinking where the hell am I

And what the hell did I come down off the mountain for

Knowing anyhow I had brought the mountain down with me

And would in time return to craft up there in the fog

From the shambles of earthly struggle and heartbreak

A reason not to sleep through judgement day

Mississippi rolls by all refuse in technicolor

As we slug shine that steams off the tongue

And leaves a reptilian sheen on our bloodshot eyes

And if it's in the north winter of the Fairweathers

Where we finally see each other again

We'll tie ourselves together against the dark

And trek down into the valley to bask in the glow

Of a third human face

And if it's Oklahoma in the spring

I'll hold the door against the tornado and wait for you

With candles and wine ready in the basement

We'll finally have a chance to learn from one another

And if that day never does come

A thousand starving playwrights will take to stage and shout

So it shall be

Over the heads of an audience in standing ovation

And a kick from the mule who shook the yoke

Will set the sun reeling eastward

And I'll remember how you told me once to close my eyes

And just listen

Bury it deep if you want it found

True gold lives underground

As we age we hone our craft

Old hands weaving yarns in the mineshaft

We are dirt and voltage

Bury me deep

I might come back

Bury me deep

I might come back

Bury me deep

I might come back

Bury me deep

I will come back