I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Oh sister, don't be afraid of me
I won't be nailing you down in the nursery
Just like the rest of them did
With those watery, wandering fingers of spit
That were supposed to be glorious and fine
Oh sister, won't you believe in me
I only wanted to be hard on the family
Here with you now in this silly infirmary
Your mother makes frantic and drunk calls
From Germany all of the time
And oh sister, sweet brown and beulahery
Milk from your blisters on your grandmother's jewelry
There in the parlor all naked in front of me
Watching the lights from the cracks
Making archery animal designs
Rose Wallace Goldaline just moves her mouth over anything
That's fleshy free and flowering like oranges out in the open
But don't you waste your sins again
She don't need you or won't fuck your friends
And you, you're American, self-important boiling over
To prove that she must still exist
She moves herself about her fist
And won't ever, never give a shit
About all those words you're wasting again
Some pretty bright and bubbly wondrous dream
You'd like to kill and claim
And claim her as your own
But don't you worry
All those dainty and dirty emotions
Just go away and fade out on their own
Sister, now that you're leaving
Our fingers will falter
Our lungs will be leaking
All over each other and without even speaking
We'll know that it's over and smile and go greeting
Whatever comes next
And oh sister
You're getting married to some angry twister
That you'll have to carry home
Drunk every evening from the cemetery
And if he makes it back half alive you can
Bury him under your sheets
And oh sister
Now that you're grieving
I cannot imagine there is any meaning
Forgetting you ever could once
Had the feeling that made you keep on
And pretend you were breathing of all of this world
And in an age of empty rings
I don't want to feel a thing
I don't even want to know
Rose Wallace Goldaline
Don't you ever die on me
Don't you woe the way you go
I won't be nailing you down in the nursery
Just like the rest of them did
With those watery, wandering fingers of spit
That were supposed to be glorious and fine
Oh sister, won't you believe in me
I only wanted to be hard on the family
Here with you now in this silly infirmary
Your mother makes frantic and drunk calls
From Germany all of the time
And oh sister, sweet brown and beulahery
Milk from your blisters on your grandmother's jewelry
There in the parlor all naked in front of me
Watching the lights from the cracks
Making archery animal designs
Rose Wallace Goldaline just moves her mouth over anything
That's fleshy free and flowering like oranges out in the open
But don't you waste your sins again
She don't need you or won't fuck your friends
And you, you're American, self-important boiling over
To prove that she must still exist
She moves herself about her fist
And won't ever, never give a shit
About all those words you're wasting again
Some pretty bright and bubbly wondrous dream
You'd like to kill and claim
And claim her as your own
But don't you worry
All those dainty and dirty emotions
Just go away and fade out on their own
Sister, now that you're leaving
Our fingers will falter
Our lungs will be leaking
All over each other and without even speaking
We'll know that it's over and smile and go greeting
Whatever comes next
And oh sister
You're getting married to some angry twister
That you'll have to carry home
Drunk every evening from the cemetery
And if he makes it back half alive you can
Bury him under your sheets
And oh sister
Now that you're grieving
I cannot imagine there is any meaning
Forgetting you ever could once
Had the feeling that made you keep on
And pretend you were breathing of all of this world
And in an age of empty rings
I don't want to feel a thing
I don't even want to know
Rose Wallace Goldaline
Don't you ever die on me
Don't you woe the way you go
Lyrics submitted by mrtrout, edited by andrew5500
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in one version that i have, this verse appears between the 2nd and 3rd verses:
Oh sister, sweet brown and comely, I will be milking with you making fun of me Now that my moods are not what they used to be There has been no one alive laying next to me For such a long time
Jeff Mangum seems to have an obsession with any variation of the word "milk," lol... nothing bad, like Jack White's obsession with the number 3... anyway, I feel like that plays a crucial role in "deciphering" any of Mangum's songs, if that's even possible, lol. Regardless the man is a legend, and his words change us for the better.
@nichie is this a better way to say my sister just caught me jacking off?