Baba Brinkman - Mosquito lyrics

Once upon a noontime dreary, while I rested
Weak and weary
Half the day was done and hunger
Pains had won me o’er
In a truck I sat while eating
With my stomach still entreating
Me to eat my fill
Depleting all the food I had in store
"I’d best save something yet, " I thought
"and not eat all I have in store
For later I may hunger more"

Ah, distinctly I remember
‘twas six months since last December
And now summer’s radiant ember left
Few shadows to explore
Vainly I had sought to borrow from
Hard work surcease of sorrow
Knowing well that no tomorrow
Resurrects the day before
Nor can any year to come return


To me the year before
A memory now, forevermore
Then this silken, sad
Uncertain sound closed round me
Like a curtain it thrilled me
Filled me with an angst I’d
Felt a thousand times before
So that now, to still the
Beating of my heart, i sat repeating
"‘Tis some insect bent on eating of
My blood and nothing more
Some small starving insect
Merely one of countless thousands more"
And at that, I shut the door

Presently, my soul grew stronger fearing
The insect then no longer
"Mosquito, " said I, "or black fly
Truly your forgiveness I implore
But the fact is I was eating
And was startled by your greeting
And no doubt sent you retreating from
The slamming of my door enter now though
You are welcome" Here I opened wide the door
Silence there, and nothing more

Far into that silence listening, fearing
Perspiration glistening
Doubting, awakening to anxieties I
Had never felt before
But the silence was unbroken
And the stillness gave no token
And my thoughts, though still unspoken
Hastened to the year before
It was a year of pure enjoyment
All too fleeting to endure
Unrivalled yet, and evermore

Thus I then returned to eating
As my unease was fast and fleeting
I turned my intent unto an apple and
Soon ate it to the core
Then to dispose that core I threw it
Caring little what or who it
Struck upon it's course, though
To it glancing, up and out the door
And there hovered a Mosquito just
Outside the crew-cab door
Hovered there, and nothing more
Startled then and struck by panic
I reached out and with a manic
Motion, closed my hand around the handle
And drew shut the open door
But my effort was not heeded, for the insect
Unimpeded flew into the truck and speeded to
The handle of the door
And there it perched upon the handle
Of my foreman’s crew-cab door
Perched and sat, and nothing more

This Mosquito then was steering my
Sad fancy into sneering
By it's nature and intent and
By the countenance it wore
So I said, "Though you’ve gained entry
Surely I’m no royal sentry
Admitting only insect gentry through
This stately crew-cab door
Tell me what thy lordly name is
That thou dare disturb my door"
Quoth the Mosquito, "Nevermore"

Much I marveled this ungainly bug
To hear discourse so plainly
Though it's answer little meaning
Little relevancy bore
For we cannot help agreeing that
No living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing on
The handle of a door
Bug or beast upon the handle
Of his foreman’s crew-cab door
With such a name as "Nevermore"

But the Mosquito, sitting lonely
On that handle, uttered only
That one word, as if it's soul in that
One word did it outpour
Nothing further then it uttered
Not a wing it flicked or fluttered
‘Til I scarcely more than muttered
"Other times have flown before
In a moment it will leave me
As my hopes have flown before"
Then the bug said, "Nevermore"
Startled at the stillness broken by
Reply so aptly spoken "Doubtless, " said I
"What it utters is it's only stock and store
Found through some freakish mutation
Or perhaps hallucination
Or my mad imagination conjured
Up that ‘Nevermore’"
My reason dared me to discover
How I heard that ‘Nevermore’
My sanity this burden bore

But no answer still was given
And as I was fixed and driven
I puzzled further at the nature of
This insect on my door
Farther then from reason sinking
I betook myself to linking fancy into fancy
Thinking what this insect on my door
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly
Gaunt and ominous insect on my door
Meant in saying, "Nevermore"

This I sat engaged in guessing
But no syllable expressing
To that bug whose beady eyes now
Burned into my bosom’s core
This and more I sat divining
With my head at ease reclining
On the head-rest’s plastic lining
And as they had moments before
My fancied thoughts soon wandered back
To that elated year before
Which would return, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser
As my excited nerves grew tenser
As in my mind I cultured malice
For that insect on my door "Wretch!" I spat
"What God has made thee? What silver
Coin the devil paid thee?
Get thee from my sight and fade thee
Like my memories of before!
Take with thee this crippled quandary
And forget the year before!"
Quoth the Mosquito, "Nevermore"

"Prophet!" said I, "Thing of
Evil! Prophet still, if bug or devil!
Whether tempter sent or whether coughed
Up from this clear-cut’s core
Desolate yet all undaunted
In this forest land enchanted
In this truck by horror haunted
Tell me truly I implore
Will that year ever return? Tell me, tell me
I implore!" quoth the Mosquito, "Nevermore"

"Prophet!" said I, "Thing of
Evil! Prophet still, if bug or devil!
By this nature all around us
The only god we both adore
Tell this soul replete with sorrow
If upon another morrow
I will be able to borrow
Bliss from memories of before
Memories of that rare and
Radiant, lovely, lost
And thus lamented year before
Quoth the Mosquito, "Nevermore"

"Be that word our sign of parting
Bug or fiend!" I shrieked upstarting
"Get thee back into the wreckage
Of this tortured clear-cut’s core!
Leave no red welt as a token of
The lie thy soul has spoken
Leave my loneliness unbroken! Quit the
Handle of my door!
Take thy proboscis from out my heart
And take thy form from off my door!
Quoth the Mosquito, "Nevermore"

And the Mosquito, never flitting
Still is sitting, still is sitting
On the lustrous chrome handle of
My foreman’s crew-cab door
And it's eyes have all the seeming
Of a demon’s that is dreaming
And the sunlight o’er it streaming throws
It's shadow on the floor
And my soul from out that shadow
That lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted – nevermore