Things Behind the Sun
By: Nick Drake
From: Pink Moon (1973)
Man, look at the size of the apples threw at the junk!
Do these folks have teeth enough? They bite and bite but there's still lotta apple. Well, not complaining, I'm not losing anything! There'll be apple crumble for dinner. I just need sugar, not much sugar so my teeth fall and I can't eat apples at all. I need fat, lots of fat men and they don't offer anything. They eat and eat and do they eat tongues? 'Cause they eat and feel nothing. When food is good, I hear nothing, not even goodbye. When the food is bad, they yell and swear and spit and sweat, it's a mess. Banana peels... they'd make for a good hat, if hats did not rotten. If banana peels weren't slippery and gooey, I'd eat them. I'd wear them as hats. Banana hats, everyone! They'd hear me, and I wouldn't need to be an adult. Tall like one.
One day, I saw a lady this tall. Yeah, this tall. I think it was a lady, she looked like me. She looked like a mermaid with green eyes. Hmmm, a mermaid with no tail, or wings. Why, I saw her flying away. Or, was it a jump? I wish I could jump that tall. Like that other dude, that weirdo, that... I forgot his name. Fraley? Something like. I Wish I had a cool hat with wings like that one lady had. I think it's a lady, don't know. Only lady I knew was mom, but if she was that much ladym, why do I live here? I have no mom, but I hear lots of moms telling 'you go take a bath', and their kiddos aren't even that dirty. They don't play on junk. They... these kids, they are the ones who throw these apples here. Do they have enough teeth for toys? Wish I had a toy... Banana dolls? Nah, they'd rotten right away.
Some people are way rotten than a banana peel. Some bananas look rotten, but it's just the peel. Open and eat and enjoy it. Why, don't you like bananas? Don't you like apples? Too much sugar? Never went to school, gave one apple to teacher. Worms and teachers, do we need them? I think we do. If those people do not eat apples, who else will? The worm, of course! A teacher more time spends teaching than eating. You need money to eat, but ya can't eat money. You can buy a whole lot of apples, though. Apples grow out trees, you pay to get an apple with its seeds, who said that money doesn't raise trees? Uh, I think it's money doesn't come out trees, but trees come out money. Geez, my head hurts, my tummy too. Must be the rotten apple. Rotten people.
That lady fell out skies like an apple falling out a tree. Her dress's red as an apple. My, can't stop thinking about food. It's all I want. Lazy today, such a lazy Tuesday. No, won't work, I'm not a working machine. I'm a kid. But I've seem kids that do not work at all. Kids in a row, going at school. I spy them by the window, they don't look that happy. But they are smart, aren't they? They can count up to hund, eh... hundry, hunded, hundried, hundread, eugh... hun, hun... forget it. Never got that much gil at pocket, my pockets are so tinny they can't have enough hundred coins. There! Whew, I feel a lot better. Who needs schools? I just need hands, fingers, a chalk? Where can I find a chalk?
No. No no no no no... won't steal. That means I'd go for school, and I don't wanna go to school. I haven't been taught anything new there. Got caught once, and punishment was to watch a whole class. What did I learn? Headache. Just another word for pain. I'd rather get a slap in the butt than a slap at head. Math is like reading some old scriptures, but all you need to are fingers. One, two, three, it's fine. One percent of the people? One percent, but how many people, are they that lazy to count? Ten percent? Twenty-five percent? Geez, is life made of percents? Percent of what? How many? That's lazy. Maybe I'm the lazy one. Bought a book full of tricky words, a magic book?
Let's see... Perfunctory! Leveraging! Schizoid! Hmmm, these spells have no use. If I point my finger at that guy over there, his hat... Fly! Fly! Fly! He doesn't fly. Does he? Nah, I'm a fool. Fool like that one grandpa who though he could fly with a few chicken feathers glued on its arms and then he fell and broke all his bones but he didn't died oh no I saw him walking to the market to buy some chicken to make soup. Chicken legs, eugh, hate that. I too hate when chickens beak you, they're a bit aggressive. It's like the little the animal, the more the devil is condensed. Oh well, I'd play the devil at church, I can contort my back to look like a scorpion, and I don't even need to wear a mask! But then, everyone would look at me, and I can't get rid of this face. Or this tail.
Nothing against you, tail. You are mine, will always be mine. Yeah, I heard they once sold a rat's tail at Treno, rich people buying rat tails... the more the money, the less the creativity. You can have anything, but when you do, you feel empty? Maybe. My stomach would never feel empty. Wouldn't that be nice? Don't know. I saw a guy eating a whole sword these days. He got quite a bunch of gil, lost his tongue, and guess what? Eat it as well. He ate lots of tongues. Amarant guy saw it all and said it was all fake. I looked at him and said he ate books. The wig guy, Mister Amarant, stared back and said nothing. I dared to ask if he felt happy selling stolen books. I'd ask if anyone ever felt happy working out all day.
Am I happy?... Oh, my stomach is empty, that's it. Gotta find more apples. Heard a little girl saying 'I'd throw a whole apple at junk to feed the homeless'. Well, isn't way easy to just give them to us at hand? It's like they fear us, or pretend we don't exist. Do I exist? A boy with a pointy hat once asked. A kid being that wise, that well-known, I think I saw him running around. Or was it's children? Do children have children? Guess everyone's a kid, but not everyone, they don't have the time to show. To throw apples at the junk, or give them by looking at me. Or at my rags, I could count them all day. No, I have better things to do. Things kid would do..
Knock the door and run! Run! RUN!
