I came up with the title first
this song is the tale of a ghost condemned to haunt a playground and watch over a kid who has an abusive dad, unable to do anything
[Verse 1]:
I’m down at the park, I look like a narc
The shadows are dark, my feet over quicksand
The moms that are here, they look at me weird
There’s a man with a beard and he’s using the swingset
I look to my left, the boy does his best
He’s so overdressed, it’s thirty degrees out
I am reclined, wealthy with time
Healthy in mind, swinging my feet high
[Chorus]:
Pay him no mind, crying in the summer
Is a heinous crime
Please don’t let your parents ever talk to mine
I can feel the rope that holds me twining, binding me here forever
[Verse 2]:
Bread for a duck, a slush in his guts
His dad has shown up, taking him home now
The boy looks behind, I cast him a smile
With a glint in my eye…
[Verse 3]:
I don’t know his name, I just count the bruises
It feels like a game that everyone loses
Comes here to play, he’s a dragon slaying knight
Here every day, and so am I
[Chorus]:
Pay him no mind, crying in the summer
Is a heinous crime
Please don’t let him see your mother talk to mine
I can feel the rope that holds me twining, binding me here forever
He plays alone, hiding in a tunnel
It’s a sacred dome
Nobody can touch him when the ceiling’s low
I can feel the trees above me close in, holding me here forever
[Post-chorus]:
He plays alone
He plays alone
He plays alone
Oh
[Bridge]:
Pray for me, I’m sinking to my knees
Shards of glass cut me and my blood seeps into the earth
Blades of grass between beds of flowers
As my flesh is devoured, in the shadow of the church
[Chorus - variation]:
Pay him no mind…
Plays alone, hiding in a tunnel
It’s not quite a home
But nobody can touch him ‘cause the ceiling’s low
I can feel the rope that holds me twining, binding me here forever
Take control, monsters cannot get you
If you’re brave and strong
Your breathing is a hymn and I will sway along
Even with the trees above me closed in, holding me here forever
@pianoonthepatio Mar 2022
I listened to this the first time without reading the liner notes and what it is about. The uke strum is misleading at first - I thought it's a cheerful song! Heartbreaking with the forced cheer vibe like what @rwhosings said. But it's what makes it compelling!
@rwhosings Feb 2022
You have me right on the edge of tears. Soprano uke gives such a sense of forced cheer that is so perfect for the subject matter.
Brilliant structure and story-telling.
That last couplet is just....there are no words.
@davidbreslin101 Feb 2022
Utterly heartbreaking. Somehow the gentle uke strum makes it more poignant than some doomy guitar part would.
@miga Feb 2022
this is quite a story and a song too - a really creative lyric idea and I listened because I liked the title. Nice work on your one-take too!