Rebecca Sigel

Carnival for the Mute (neither did i)

a song about people performing their acts, running into each other, running over each other, and saying nothing. when the performances end, the only things left are the stewed memories of brief eye contacts and confused gestures from which to assume and extrapolate intent. silence begets a circus of assumption, with each actor waiting for the other to initiate the performance. they never do.

when speech is not enough, these notes and melodies and ascents and descents are sometimes the only ways of getting us to speak to each other without undo collision. when words seem too mundane, prose shifted into song somehow becomes something more true. i'll ask my question now.

Lyrics

Carnival for the Mute (neither did i) — Rebecca Sigel

I don't think I ever really saw
How a Freudian slip could happen til
I asked you whether "common desires"
Is singular or plural
And you looked in my eyes as if to say
Your weren't sure if I meant it another way
And neither was I

The ship had a mast the mast had a sail the sail had a give that would go
The wind was right the tide was right but something there was wrong
The fear in your eyes was all you needed to say
You weren't sure how to sail the ship away
Neither was I.

As we stared at closet of shirts side by side
Each plaid like the other just different in color
Wrinkled striped linen all buttoned up tight
And you looked at me as if to say
All these criss-crossed lines just get in the way

Honesty was never my strength
But you see here I've told you, now in my own way
Won't volunteer but every word I say is true
I just wish you'd ask me how I feel for you.
And if you still mean to say
You don't know why I drifted away
Neither do I.