WESTERN
Words and music by Sarah McQuaid & Zoë Pollock
Recorded on Mama: Crow Coyote Buffalo (2009)
You are resting suspended on a blanket of warm summer air, gazing down through the darkness at the barely perceptible features of the desert below: arroyos and mesas, gulches and gullies, dry stream beds that twist and meander, deepening and widening into vast canyons that stretch for miles and miles ....
Wind blows warm in the summer
Grass grows brown in the summer
Got my gold and my wide eyes
Canyons broad where my soul flies
Sleep brings
My western dream
Oh ...
Stars glow bright in the night sky
Spirits roam in my mind’s eye
Swing down low over tall trees
Rustling leaves in the soft breeze
Sleep brings
My western dream
Oh ...
Fly like a sprite, fly through the night
Fly to the light, let it shine through you
Fly like a sprite, fly through the night
Fly to the light, let it shine through you
Your belly brushes the tips of the great Ponderosa pines, the soft needles scraping against your skin, the rustling of the branches disturbing the sleep of the birds roosting there, and they flutter and call out anxiously to one another as you pass. Down on the ground, nocturnal hunters glance up, their eyes reflecting the starlight and glinting yellow and red, while you travel slowly onward, awed and captivated, bewildered and happy.
Raise my eyes to the morning
Frozen limbs in the dawning
Left my soul on the high plains
Reel it in with a long rein
Sleep brings
My western dream
Oh ...
