Laurie Anderson
The Beginning of Memory
There's a story in an ancient play about birds called The Birds
And it's a short story from before the world began
From a time when there was no earth, no land
Only air and birds everywhere
But the thing was there was no place to land
Because there was no land
So they just circled around and around
Because this was before the world began
And the sound was deafening. Songbirds were everywhere
Billions and billions and billions of birds
And one of these birds was a lark and one day her father died
And this was a really big problem because what should they do with the body?
There was no place to put the body because there was no earth
And finally the lark had a solution
She decided to bury her father in the back of her own head
And this was the beginning of memory
Because before this no one could remember a thing
They were just constantly flying in circles
Constantly flying in huge circles