I see you coming down in your cherry wool coat
bare to the throat like Marie at the Mill
Where might you go from your lowly amour
Where they hoard you like gold in the hills

Sink from my side to the cold riverbed
Mary you go ahead; I will follow in time
the work keeps me here with a few pioneers
magnetizing a permanent line
save for the coat, there was nothing to bring
it was found you could sing
you were sent to the bay
at seminary, you passed and were buried
I rose there the very next day

for if you weren’t born at the right time my dear
just keep trying and trying and trying again
as for the end it is not what you fear
you’re just slippin’ a glove from your hand

like this
down, down, down, down
your wrist
down, down
the list of lives
husbands and wives
dozens of times
around again and then

out of all of the girls, heard my coloratura and called me the heir of Melba(?) & myth
I cross the Atlantic
from Boston to Nantes
On the hand of my dear Mr. Smith

Then came his talk(?) of perdition and sin
like a cold winter wind come to blow me away
I was impatient and sought education
on stage and the Champs-Élysées
I left on my own with the clothes on my back
and my own name intact
and my own bills to pay
I left him in debt
with his feather ___ ‘alouette, je te plumerai’
I had the honor to sing Mendelssohn
on the Ternary lawn
for the brave and the fool/few(?)
but it was my joy
to be called to Bayreuth
For who toiled a slave comes anew a prince

For gentler worthiness and merit won
who ruled a king may wander in rags for things
Done and undone and done and undone

I wed Mr. Russak, a fan(?)
and producer of amateur music
all lambent(?) in pearls
Held court in Newport
amused myself before I threw off the veil of the world
and when in time he sank under the sea
what he deeded to me was enough to begin
as secretary and past emissary
I rose through the ranks from within

my carnelian snuff bottle carved as a peach
and a small sterling wagon
well that was part of the set
consigned to the waters of Elliott beach
left behind with your Pall Mall Gazette

and it was not luck
put me there by his side
when the old colonel died
and the adepts appeared
and oh, what they shared
well you had to be there
but i’ll tell you if you wanna hear:

“Henry your work here is done
Annie will carry it on.
Marie, write it all down,
til the keynote is found.”
you run it up and down
and round and round and round and

so I think as I could
all the gaps as a pill were for good(?)
and only good
through some lapse in a life long forgot
I'd won the right to clean the room and transcribe the thoughts
of the boy from the beach with his pervious soul
poor little teacher got you doing as you’re told
and even so
there is danger here in the sun
Honey, tell me what has Sirius done?
I hear it all but I cannot assume
none may I follow to the octagon room
the boy from the beach beckoned and called
Lord, he’ll leave (and unhand it all)?

I see the clock on the wall
I hear the knock on the door but that is all

and when my work here is through
Henry, will you find me anew
little stranger
my old friend
woo me and win me
again and again and again
all over again
all over again
all over again

(then she sing/talks this last part)
(this is rough so stay with me)

there’s a lodger in me
larger than me
saw the cross in the garden where your process came to be and
cut you free
though your father tried to reunite
with you, and Nitya was allowed to die
despite the lies we are grist in the mill

On the list I’m Helios still, Sun-Wielder,
Brünnhilde’s running,
She is,
Running around, and round x6

Notes

Played for the first time at Joanna Newsom's surprise concert on March 22nd, 2023. Lyrics are the community's best guess until an official recording comes out.