Tropicalia for the Empty Half

Paroles de « Tropicalia for the Empty Half »

Intro: ambient swell

Verse 1: Ines

Three weeks in a greenhouse on the equator line,
the mist comes on at eight, the mist comes off at nine.
There's a cot with a canvas back and a fan that only hums,
and a placard on the glass: WATER BEFORE THE SUN COMES.
No ceiling here to tell me if it's clouding up inside,
just a roof of actual water and a sky I didn't buy.

Chorus: Ines

Good morning, empty half,
what's the weather in your room?
I picked an orange off the tree.
It came from dirt. It came for free.

Chorus: Chorus

(It came from dirt, it came for free)

Verse 2: Ines

I talk to the empty half the way you'd talk to a dog,
low and unembarrassed, around six, in the fog.
I say: Marlow, there's a beetle here the color of a dime.
I say: nobody's translating me and I'm finishing on time.
Sable's out of range — I checked that seven times a day.
By the ninth day I stopped checking. By the eleventh, I could say —

Chorus: Ines

Good morning, empty half,
what's the weather in your room?
I planted something in a cup.
It hasn't asked me to sign up.

Chorus: Chorus

(It hasn't asked her to sign up)

Break: instrumental samba

Bridge: Ines, then Chorus

INES: There's a girl here on the night shift and she runs the vents alone.
She said: your husband's voice came through last Tuesday on the phone.
He asked what row I sleep in. He asked if I was thin.
I said: tell him row eleven. Don't tell him I came in.
(Don't tell him she came in)
INES: Tell him it rained on schedule. Tell him nothing else got signed.
(Nothing else got signed)

Verse 3: Ines

I'm coming back on Thursday with a suitcase full of seeds
and a sunburn on one shoulder shaped like the thing I need.
I learned the word for rain from a woman washing rice.
She didn't say it prettily. She only said it twice.
So here's my forecast, empty half, and I'm the one who wrote it:
warm in the afternoon. And nobody proofread it.

Outro: Ines

Good morning, empty half.
I'm not asking what you'd choose.
The bed is wide. The glass is loud.
I slept in the middle. And I slept out loud.

Outro: Chorus

(She slept in the middle)
(She slept out loud)