Jane Siberry
Meshach Dreams Back
[Intro]
Let go
Let go
Let go
Shadrach, Hananiah
Meschach, Mishael
Abednego, Azariah
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
[Verse 1]
Come on, Magic. Let's go to the train station. It's our turn to greet people. Others have gone to schoolyards, to office parties, any and all ports of call where someone might be found standing alone against a wall.
[Verse 2]
You know, when the great train of freedom comes
They say no one will be left behind
No one
Not the least of sparrows
Don't give up, get ready
Prepare ourselves, get ready
Here we go, get ready
[Verse 3]
Maybe it was to learn how to love
Maybe it was to learn how to leave
Maybe it was just the games we played
Maybe it was to learn not to lie
Or maybe it was to learn how to cry
Or maybe it was for the love we made
[Verse 4]
Oh, love is everything they said it would be
And love made sweet and sad the same
But love forgot to make me too blind to see
You're chickening out, aren't you?
You're chickening out or—is it me?
[Verse 5]
And as I came around the corner of the building
I saw embedded in the wall
I saw, I saw a shell and I saw a pearl
And I saw a superhero's cape
And I saw a sword
And I saw, I saw the mighty word
M-A-G-I-C
Which of course spells "Yes!"
Yes? I didn't mean to say "Yes!" The universe did a martial arts move on me and, and tripped me up on my own energy. But since I'd said yes, I found myself being led blindfolded through a backyard in Oakland, California towards a chicken hut and I braced for the fatal squawk. Hmm.
[Verse 6]
And inside that chicken hut, that dark tent, they cut the clothes from my body, my expensive black leather jacket from New York, my expensive black jeans from Paris, ten percent lycra, perfect fit, long sought after, and finally gone was my expensive thong. But I was so desperate to lose the heaviness that had dogged my trail since I had been a young girl that it finally outweighed the, the "otherness." And they sprinkled me with some kind of magic water and incanted words in a language I'd never heard before. And I don't know if the water or the words worked. I just know that I will never, ever forget their kindness.
[Verse 7]
Let go
Let go
Oh mama
Let go
With what shall I keep warm?
Let go
Let go of keeping warm
To which Meshach dreams back
"Consider the lilies of the field"
[Outro]
And she came around the corner of the building and she saw a bench, and she looked up at the sun and it was hot, and she felt the wind and it was strong, and she took off her cloak and laid it on the bench.