Chord Only Skin by Joanna Newsom

only skin . F Am and there was a booming above you G F Am that night , black airplanes flew over the sea F Am and they were lowing and shifting like beached whales G F shelled snails Am as you strained and you squinted to see G F Am the retreat of their hairless and blind cavalry G Em7 D you froze in your sand shoal C A# prayed for your poor soul F C A# Dm sky was a bread roll , soaking in a milk - bowl Em7 D C A# and when the bread broke , fell in bricks of wet smoke F C A# Dm my sleeping heart woke , and my waking heart spoke F Am then there was a silence you took to mean something : G F mean , run , sing Am G for alive you will evermore be F Am and the plague of the greasy black engines A - skulkin’ G F has gone east G Am while you’re left to explain them to me G F Am released from their hairless and blind cavalry G Em7 D C A# with your hands in your pockets , stubbily running F C A# Dm to where i’m unfresh , undressed and yawning Em7 D C A# well , what is this craziness? this crazy talking? F C A# Dm you caught some small death when you were sleepwalking A Em D A it was a dark dream , darlin’ , it’s over F C A# Dm the firebreather is beneath the clover A Em D A beneath his breathing there is cold clay , forever F C A# Dm a toothless hound - dog choking on a feather F#m A Bm D but i took my fishingpole fearing your fever F#m A Bm D down to the swimminghole , where there grows a bitter herb F#m A Bm BBadd6 that blooms but one day a year by the riverside - i’d bring it here : F C apply it gently A# Dm to the love you’ve lent me F Am while the river was twisting and braiding , the bait bobbed G F Am G and the string sobbed , as it cut through the hustling breeze F Am and i watched how the water was kneading so neatly G F gone treacly Am nearly slowed to a stop in this heat G F Am G - frenzy coiling flush along the muscles beneath Am C Em G press on me : we are restless things Am C Em G webs of seaweed are swaddling Am C you call upon the dusk Em G of the musk of a squid Am C Em G shot full of ink , until you sink into your crib Dm F Am C rowing along , among the reeds , among the rushes Dm F C Am7 i heard your song , before my heart had time to hush it! Dm F Am C smell of a stone fruit being cut and being opened Dm F C Am7 smell of a low and of a lazy cinder smoking C G C G/B and when the fire moves away Am G F fire moves away , son C G C G/B why would you say Am G F i was the last one? Fm7 Am C Em G scrape your knee; it is only skin Am C Em G makes the sound of violins Am C Em G when i cut your hair , and leave the birds all of the trimmings Am C Em G i’m the happiest woman among all women! C# and the shallow Fm water C#m7 Fm stretches as far as i can see C# D#/C# knee - deep , trudging along C# Fm a seagull weeps; "so long" C# Fm humming a threshing song Fm until the night is over hold on! hold on! C# hold your horses back from the fickle dawn Fm i have got some business out at the edge of town C# candy weighing both of my pockets down Fm ’til i can hardly stay afloat , from the weight of them C# and knowing how the common - folk condemn Fm what it is i do , to you , to keep you warm C# being a woman , being a woman A#m but always up the mountainside you’re clambering C# groping blindly , hungry for anything A#m picking through your pocket linings - well , what is this? C# D# scrap of sassafras , eh sisyphus? Fm i see the blossoms broke and wet after the rain C# little sister , he will be back again Fm i have washed a thousand spiders down the drain C# spiders ghosts hang soaked and dangeling A#m silently from all the blooming cherry trees C# in tiny nooses , safe from everyone A#m - nothing but a nuisance; gone now , dead and done C# D# be a woman , be a woman! Fm though we felt the spray of the waves A#m G# Gmdim we decided to stay ’til the tide rose too far Fm A#m we weren’t afraid , ’cause we know what you are Am Bmb Cmadd6 and you know that we know what you are awful atoll D# C#m7add11 - o , incalculable indiscreetness and sorrow bawl , bellow : Fm Cmadd6 sibyl sea - cow , all done up in a bow toddle and roll; D# teeth an impalpable bit of leather C#m7add11 while yarrow , heather and hollyhock Fm D# Fm awkwardly molt along the shore C# are you mine? Fm C# my heart? mine anymore? F C# stay with me for a while F that’s an awfully real gun C# i know life will lay you down F as the lightning has lately done Am failing this , failing this , C G follow me , my sweetest friend F G/F Am to see what you anointed in pointing your gun there C lay it down! nice and slow! G F there is nowhere to go , save up Am G F up where the light , undiluted , is weaving in a drunk dream Am G F at the sight of my baby , out back Am G F back on the patio watching the bats bring night in Am G while , elsewhere , estuaries of wax - white F Am G wend , endlessly , towards seashores unmapped Em7 D C A# last week our picture window produced a half - word F C A# Dm heavy and hollow , hit by a brown bird Em7 D C A# we stood and watched her gape like a rattlesnake F C A# Dm and pant and labour over every intake A Em D A i said a sort of prayer for some sort of rare grace F C A# Dm then thought i ought to take her to a higher place A Em D A said : "dog nor vulture nor cat shall toy with you F C A# Dm and though you die , bird , you will have a fine view" F#m A then in my hot hand Bm D she slumped her sick weight F#m A we tramped through the poison oak Bm D heartbroke and inchoate F#m A the dogs were snapping Bm D so you cuffed their collars F#m A while i climbed the tree - house Bm D then how i hollered! F#m A Bm BBadd6 cause she’d lain , as still as a stone , in my palm , for a lifetime or two F C A# Dm then , saw the treetops , cocked her head and up and flew away and F#m A back in the world that moves , often A# BBadd6 according to the hoarding of these clues Fm7 C dogs still run roughly around A# Dm little tufts of finch - down F Am and the cities we passed were a flickering wasteland G F Am G F but his hand in my hand made them hale and harmless Am while down in the lowlands the crops are all coming F we have everything Am life is thundering blissful towards death G F Am G in a stampede of his fumbling green gentleness Am C Em G you stopped by , i was all alive Am C Em G in my doorway , we shucked and jived Am C and when you wept , i was gone : Em G see , i got gone when i got wise Am C Em G but i can’t with certainty say we survived Dm F then down , and down Am and down , and down C and down , and deeper Dm F stoke without sound C the blameless flames Am7 you endless sleeper Dm F Am C through fire below , and fire above , and fire within Dm F C Am7 sleeped through the things that couldn’t have been if you hadn’t have been C G C and when the fire moves away Am G F fire moves away , son G C G G/B why would you say Am G F i was the last one? Am C Em G all my bones they are gone , gone , gone Am C G Dm take my bones , i don’t need none Am C Em G cold , cold cupboard , lord , nothing to chew on! Am C G F suck all day on a cherry stone Am C Em G dig a little hole , not three inches round Am C G Dm spit your pit in the hole in the ground Am C Em G weep upon the spot for the starving of me! Am C G F till up grow a fine young cherry tree Am C Em G well when the bough breaks , what’ll you make for me? Am C G Dm a little willow cabin to rest on your knee Am C Em G what’ll i do with a trinket such as this? Am C G F think of your woman , who’s gone to the west Am C Em G but i’m starving and freezing in my measly old bed! Am C G Dm then i’ll crawl across the salt flats to stroke your sweet head Am C Em G come across the desert with no shoes on! Am C G F i love you truly , or i love no - one Fm7 Am fire moves away Fm7 fire moves away , son why would you say Fm7 i was the last one? Am G last one . . clear the room! there’s a fire , a fire , a fire Am G get going , and i’m going to be right behind you F Am G and if the love of a woman or two , dear , F Am couldn’t move you to such heights , then all i can do G F Am is do , my darling , right by you