[song from a salt mine]
[Time: 5'26"]
[Lyrics: Andy Wagner]
[First performed October 5, 1997 -- show #3]
[Appears as track #5 on "Pastor of Muppets"]
[Tim: double bass, Nevin: viola, Kort: cello, Jamie: percussion, Andy: guitar, vocals, Thom: guitar, vocals]


At one point, this was our most-played song and by probable estimate
the audience's favorite. We don't play it so much anymore,
but it's still got some of my (Andy's) favorite lyrics.
I actually handed the lyrics in as a poem in a class,
and the teacher hated it -- he thought it was about
getting away from some horrible spider woman (partially
because a vector is something that can carry a disease, besides
the other spider reference.) Oh well.


after toiling in the salt mines all day
i shake off the detritus of the archaeology
as i chalk up another notch to character
the five o'clock whistle whispers its threnody.

and like a toroid i stay wound
for sundry subways and monorails
do little to assuage my spine
and varicose tendons.

in this Orwellian space
where i subsist by staying awake
you are the only one who brings me sweet sleep.

temper salt to sugar with gossamer kisses like spiders doing soft-shoe on skin
discandy this confection with syllables and wispy vectors of warm air
alleviate, unravel, and untangle this labyrinthine excuse for a human being
part pin from cushion and case from pillow.

to lie where smiles are cradles and the hourglass turns back to sand.

and just like the fairy godmother said
at sunup
the whistle's fugue turns to morning reveille
and my flesh turns back to brick
the first sweat is splashed on the grindstone
i'm off to my day again.

someday there'll be more than this i swear
for the time being i just ask
that you take me
with a grain of salt.


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