First Time

Remember once I told you about
How before I heard it from your mouth
My name would always hit my ears as such an awful sound?
And the soul, if that's what you'd call it
Uneasy ally of the body
It felt nameless as a river undiscovered underground

And the first time that you kissed me
I drank dry the River Lethe
The Liffey would have been softer on my stomach all the same
But you spoke some quick new music
That went so far to soothe this soul
As it was and ever shall be, unearth without a name

Some part of me must have died
The first time that you called me "baby"
And some part of me came alive
The first time that you called me "baby"

These days, I think I owe my life
To flowers that were left here by my mother
Ain't that like them, gifting life to you again
This life lived mostly underground
Unknowing either sight nor sound
'Til reaching up for sunlight just to be ripped out by the stem

Sensing only now it's dying
Drying out, then drowning blindly
Blooming forth its every colour
In the moments it has left
To share the space with simple living things
Infinitely suffering, but fighting off like all creation
The absence of itself, anyway

Some part of me must have died
Each time that you called me "baby"
And some part of me stayed alive
Each time that you called, each time that you called

Come here
Ooh-la-la, ooh-la-la
Whatever keeps you around, it keeps you around
Ooh-la-la, come here, ooh-la-la
Whatever keeps you around, it keeps you around

The last time it was heard out loud
The perfect genius of our hands and mouths were shocked
To resignation as the arguing declined
When I was young, I used to guess
Are there limits to any emptiness?
When was the last time?
Come here to me, when was the last time?

Some part of me must have died
The final time you called me "baby"
But some part of me came alive
The final time you called me "baby"