Jack and Jill

from Phoenix Envy by Andrew Calhoun

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lyrics

(lyrics reworked since this recording)

Time stood still, when Jack took ill
Big flies died on the windowsill
Across the pond, the wind blew chill
And Jill ate candy in the kitchen
Curtains rustled over chocolate lead
Cool wind blew dust over Jack's forehead
Oak claws scraped the house and a blackbird fled
From the bright, cold touch of the morning

Jill heard the bed creak through the ceiling as she walked in her socks
Across the floor to the door of the old icebox
And she tried to assemble the afternoon's blocks
And looked at the light on the meadow
Near the roof, Jack rolled over to escape the heat
And wrapped his blanket tight around cold feet
The kitchen floor gave out a creak
As he stared at the light in the window

Jill walked outside with her hate in her hands
Past the marigolds and the garbage cans
She was out past the garden when the screendoor slammed
Gathering strength from the ground
Jack, as dazed as the day he was born
Saw light melt in the hills like butter on corn
He didn't know what it meant when he heard the screendoor
But he fell into sleep at the sound

Down through the pasture and into the trees
Jill plunged through thorns that clutched her knees
To a pathway covered in fog and leaves
Where the yew berries fade into shadow
And the wood grew strange, though she knew every place
Every nook where the busy spiders chase
No friend nor foe would show a face
On either hill or hollow

Jill took a stick to guide her when night began to stir
And she felt the horizon close in with a blur
A blackbird flapped, and it startled her
To think of a life in the air
Then it's up and hill and down a hill
She came upon a new-sunk well
One owl flew, while the world went still
Jill stood like iron, and brushed away her hair

A marvelous man rose in the pit
Like one made perfect, bit by bit
His mouth drew open, a trembling slit
As he looked her body over
And he spoke to her, he rattled her name
And he gnawed at the sight in her eyes as he came
She the puppet, he the flame,
"and so you're mine, sweet lover."

She cried, "you lie," but he took her by the shins
And she cried, "God help me," but he pulled her farther in
Then she swung her stick, and struck the thing
But she froze still in its hold
"Hoo, hoo," at the window—'twas the owl's croon
Jack saw Jill frozen there like stone
His blood swam warm, as he rolled to face the moon
And she felt him claim her from the cold

Jill climbed out of nowhere into simple night
Ivory skin shriveled up and tumbled out of sight
She stood with her stick in the new moonlight
On dirt in the heart of a clearing
Jack dreams of one he'll love forever
Running through the pines, a constant river
With a worn out mind, and a broken fever
Wrung like a dishrag, sleeping

Jill staggered upstairs and lay down in bed
With scars on her arms and peace in her head
Drifting into sleep when a thin voice said,
"Where have you been all night?"
In dawning light, where Jack woke up
Frightened stiff as a toad in a cup
Jill looked to the stars, though her eyes were shut
She said, "It's all right, love, it's all right.
It's all right love, it's all right."

credits

from Phoenix Envy, released June 24, 1996

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Andrew Calhoun Chicago, Illinois

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