[To preface this, I think the narrator is visiting a place that makes him remember his childhood, I like to imagine that he's at his late grandfather's farm]
"howdy, lem," my grandpa said with his eyes closed
wiping the eastbound dust from his sunburned brow
a life before doubt.
[He's remembering the days he spent with his grandfather as a child, a time before he was corrupted, before he started thinking so much, before he doubted everything. His grandfather seems to have been a working man]
i smell the engine grease and mint the wind is blending
under the moan of rotting elm in the silo floor.
[He can still smell the mint and engine grease in the air from back then, the silo floor he used to walk on is now rotted and old, which is symbollic of him becoming an adult. Life is no longer as bright and fascinating as it once was.]
down a hill of pine tree quills we made our way
to the bottom and the ferns where thick moss grows
beside a stream.
[see next]
under the rocks are snails and we can fills our pockets
and let them go one by one all day in a brand new place.
[He recalls how him and his grandpa used to walk through nature down a hill to a special place where there was a stream. There he used to catch snails and let them go in different places, almost like it was a game. ]
you were no ordinary drain on her defenses
and she was no ordinary girl
Oh, Inverted World
[This part, to me, is the main focus of the song. The narrator is now thinking about a much more recent event, probably about a failed a relationship. When he says 'you' I think he is actually talking to himself, saying that she was one in a million and he truly loved her and he regrets that his way of thinking drained her and eventually led to their downfall. "What a backwards world," is the afterthought of his nostalgia.]
if every moment of our lives
were cradled softly in the hands of some strange and gentle child
i'd not roll my eyes so.
[Now he ties the whole thing together. My guess is that his last girlfriend believed in God or fate or something but the narrator disagreed, which led to their falling out. He remembers the childhood game he played with the snails and sees it as a metaphor for God's hypothetical relationship with humans. He thinks, "if only life were really like that... but it's not" and then rolls his eyes. The last stanza also feels like the narrator is lamenting his childhood]
It's a wonderful song. Mercer always does a fantastic job of intertwining complex ideas and themes among his experiences with relationships and love.
[To preface this, I think the narrator is visiting a place that makes him remember his childhood, I like to imagine that he's at his late grandfather's farm]
"howdy, lem," my grandpa said with his eyes closed wiping the eastbound dust from his sunburned brow a life before doubt.
[He's remembering the days he spent with his grandfather as a child, a time before he was corrupted, before he started thinking so much, before he doubted everything. His grandfather seems to have been a working man]
i smell the engine grease and mint the wind is blending under the moan of rotting elm in the silo floor.
[He can still smell the mint and engine grease in the air from back then, the silo floor he used to walk on is now rotted and old, which is symbollic of him becoming an adult. Life is no longer as bright and fascinating as it once was.]
down a hill of pine tree quills we made our way to the bottom and the ferns where thick moss grows beside a stream.
[see next]
under the rocks are snails and we can fills our pockets and let them go one by one all day in a brand new place.
[He recalls how him and his grandpa used to walk through nature down a hill to a special place where there was a stream. There he used to catch snails and let them go in different places, almost like it was a game. ]
you were no ordinary drain on her defenses and she was no ordinary girl Oh, Inverted World
[This part, to me, is the main focus of the song. The narrator is now thinking about a much more recent event, probably about a failed a relationship. When he says 'you' I think he is actually talking to himself, saying that she was one in a million and he truly loved her and he regrets that his way of thinking drained her and eventually led to their downfall. "What a backwards world," is the afterthought of his nostalgia.]
if every moment of our lives were cradled softly in the hands of some strange and gentle child i'd not roll my eyes so.
[Now he ties the whole thing together. My guess is that his last girlfriend believed in God or fate or something but the narrator disagreed, which led to their falling out. He remembers the childhood game he played with the snails and sees it as a metaphor for God's hypothetical relationship with humans. He thinks, "if only life were really like that... but it's not" and then rolls his eyes. The last stanza also feels like the narrator is lamenting his childhood]
It's a wonderful song. Mercer always does a fantastic job of intertwining complex ideas and themes among his experiences with relationships and love.