Lyrics Monkey & Bear - Joanna Newsom

Monkey & Bear

Down in the green hay
Where Monkey and Bear usually lay
They woke from a stable-boy's cry
Said, «Someone come quick
The horses got loose, got grass-sick
They’ll founder, Fain, they’ll die»
What is now known by the sorrel and the roan?
By the chestnut, and the bay, and the gelding grey?
It is, stay by the gate you are given
And remain in your place, for your season
And had the overfed dead but listened
To the high-fence, horse-sense, wisdom
«Did you hear that, Bear?»
Said Monkey, «We'll get out of here, fair and square
They left the gate open wide
So, my bride, here is my hand, where is your paw?
Try and understand my plan, Ursula
My heart is a furnace full of love that’s just, and earnest
Now, you know that we must unlearn this
Allegiance to a life of service
And no longer answer to that heartless
Hay-monger, nor be his accomplice
The charlatan, with artless hustling
But Ursula, we’ve got to eat something
And earn our keep, while still within
The borders of the land that man has girded
All double-bolted and tightfisted
Until we reach the open country
A-steeped in milk and honey
Will you keep your fancy clothes on, for me?
Can you bear a little longer to wear that leash?
My love, I swear by the air I breathe
Sooner or later, you’ll bare your teeth
But for now, just dance, darling
C’mon, will you dance, my darling?
Darling, there’s a place for us
Can we go, before I turn to dust?
Oh my darling there’s a place for us
Oh darling, c’mon will you dance, my darling?
The hills are groaning with excess
Like a table ceaselessly being set
My darling we will get there yet"
They trooped past the guards
Past the coops, and the fields, and the farmyards
All night, till finally
The space they gained grew
Much farther than the stone that bear threw
To mark where they’d stop for tea
But, «Walk a little faster, don’t look backwards
Your feast is to the East, which lies a little past the pasture
And the blackbirds hear tea whistling and rise and clap
Their applause caws the kettle black
And we can’t have none of that
Move along, Bear, there, there, that’s that»
Though cast in plaster
Our Ursula’s heart beat faster
Than Monkey’s ever will
But still, they have got to pay the bills
Hadn’t they?
That is what the monkey’d say
So, with the courage of a clown, or a cur
Or a kite, jerking tight at its tether
In her dun-brown gown of fur
And her jerkin of swansdown and leather
Bear would sway on her hindlegs
The organ would grind dregs of song for the pleasure
Of the children who’d shriek
Throwing coins at her feet then recoiling in terror
Sing, «Dance, darling
C’mon, will you dance, my darling?
Darling, there’s a place for us
Can we go, before I turn to dust?
Oh my darling there’s a place for us
Oh darling, c’mon, will you dance, my darling?
You keep your eyes fixed on the highest hill
Where you’ll ever-after eat your fill
Oh my darling, dear mine, if you dance
Dance darling and I’ll love you still"
Deep in the night shone a weak and miserly light where the monkey shouldered
his lamp
Someone had told him the bear’d been wandering a fair piece away from where
they were camped
Someone had told him the bear had been sneaking away to the seaside caverns,
to bathe
And the thought troubled the monkey for he was afraid of spelunking down in
those caves
Also afraid what the village people would say if they saw the bear in that state
Lolling and splashing obscenely well, it seemed irrational, really washing that
face
Washing that matted and flea-bit pelt in some sea-spit-shine, old kelp dripping
with brine
But Monkey just laughed, and he muttered, «When she comes back, Ursula will be
bursting with pride
Till I jump up saying, 'You've been rolling in muck,' saying, 'You smell of
garbage and grime'»
But far out, far out
By now, by now
Far out, by now, Bear ploughed
'Cause she would not drown
First the outside-legs of the bear up and fell down, in the water,
like knobby garters
Then the outside-arms of the bear fell off, as easy as if sloughed from boiled
tomatoes
Lowered in a genteel curtsy, bear shed the mantle of her diluvian shoulders
And, with a sigh, she allowed the burden of belly to drop, like an apron full
of boulders
If you could hold up her threadbare coat to the light, where it’s worn
translucent in places
You’d see spots where, almost every night of the year, Bear had been mending,
suspending that baseness
Now her coat drags through the water, bagging, with a life’s-worth of hunger,
limitless minnows
In the magnetic embrace, balletic and glacial, of Bear’s insatiable shadow
Left there, left there
When Bear left bear
Left there, left there
When Bear stepped clear of Bear
Sooner or later, you’ll bare your teeth