Hallelujah for That!

Put your oxygen mask on
You first
You first
Then help the children around you

Strap in for a bumpy ride
This time
This time
The failure is mechanical

This is not an airplane
It's a metaphor

Put your oxygen mask on
You first
You first
Then help the children around you

Nothing sacred but
Some things are precious
Hallelujah for that

The map is not the terrain
Memorize it and then burn it
The love in the sky does not have a name
Everyone tries it, so easy to talk to

God so loved the world
Gave us each other
Hallelujah for that

Inconsolable wailing
Uncontrollable quaking
Grief can bring you down
Beneath your dignity

Under visible pressure
Indivisible oceans
There's something universal
In the throes of grief

If you ever cry
How some people cry
You already know
Yeah, you know
How that open muscle throbs

Some people try
So hard not to cry
You see them choking
As they're holding back their sobs

Then the inevitable truce
An eleventh hour pardon
When the pain runs out of juice
That's when the juicy bits get hardened

Take a moment to recoup
And take tally what you've lost
Eat some chicken noodle soup
All the chocolate in the house

La Pietà carved out of marble
Quarried out of northern Italy
Carved by Michelangelo
Commissioned for some bishop's mausoleum stone

Mary, morning, young as a maid
Across her lap the broken Christ displayed
The banner on her breast reads Michelangelo did this
Every artist has to ask, how much do I invest
La la la la la la la la la la la la la

But drowning people don't cry for help
Their lungs fill with water
And their voice box needs air
There's neither a whimper nor a terrified yelp
Your thoughts as you're drowning are private as prayer

Drowning people don't thrash about
Their arms lock downward, pushing oxygen up
Their eyes might blink wildly
They'll form O's with their mouths
As their limbs tread tiredly
Against the formless depths

Drowning people, they know what's going on
You got a little time to think
Before your brain starts shutting down
Your thoughts might race panicked
Or rest on some love
Who doesn't know drowning as they watch from above

There's still time enough
To put your oxygen mask on
Hallelujah for that



Credits
Writer(s): William Stafford
Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com

Link