Lyrics The Ouija Board - Laurie Anderson

The Ouija Board

About this time, like a lot of New Yorkers who find themselves on the West
Coast, I got interested in various aspects of California’s versions of the
occult
We would sit around at night while the Santa Ana winds howled outside and ask
questions to the ouija board
I found out a lot of information on my past 9,361 human lives on this planet
My first life was as a raccoon
And then you were a cow
And then you were a bird
And then you were a hat, spelled the Ouija
We said «a hat?»
We couldn’t figure it out
Finally we guessed that the feathers from the bird had been made into a hat.
Is this true?
Yes, spelled the Ouija
Hat counts as half life
And then?
Hundreds and hundreds of rabbis
Now this is apparently my first life as a woman, which should explain quite a
few things
Eventually though, the Ouija’s written words seemed to take on a personality,
a kind of a voice.
Finally we began to ask the board if the Ouija would be
willing to appear to us in some other form
FORGET IT
FORGET IT
FORGET IT
FORGET IT
FORGET IT
FORGET IT-
The Ouija seemed like it was about to crash
Please, please, what can we do, we were nagging now, so you will show yourself
to us in some other manifestation?
You should lurk.
You should L-U-R-K.
Lurk
Now I never really figured out how to lurk in my own place, even though it was
only a rented place, but I did find myself looking over my shoulder a lot
And every sound that drifted in seemed to be a version of this phantom voice
whispering in a code that I could never crack