Decemberists - The Gymnast, High Above The Ground lyrics

The gymnast, high above the ground,

Limbers up and falls timbers down.

Ankles splayed and all tied.

The gymnast long has arrived.

Lazy, your long sister lays

Waiting out this long light brigade.

Prayed for snow a long time.

And lazy, it long has arrived.

Through the tarlatan holes

You've been slipping, been slipping away

And the weather will hold

It's been ever so, ever so gray.

But here as we're coming down

And we're sounding out:

it's a terrible, terrible tide

As it lights upon your eye

But there on the motorway,

reeks of marmalade

It's a chemical, chemical kind

As it lights upon your eye

Lights upon your eye

The bosun calls upon the quay.

Compass gone, he long has lost his way

To lighthouse shine, to calm tide.

The bosun long has arrived.

Through the tarlatan holes,

You've been slipping, been slipping away

And the weather will hold

It's been ever so, ever so gray

But here as we're coming down

And we're sounding out:

it's a terrible, terrible tide

As it lights upon your eye

But there on the motorway,

reeks of marmalade

It's a chemical, chemical kind

As it lights upon your eye

Lights upon your eye