When The Haar Rolls In - James Yorkston

You asked me to jump the 45 measured feet into the water

But I am no folly built for your lazy pleasure

If only it were so

Your hands were fairly stone cold as you placed them on my neck

We climbed off the train at Birnam

We anchored our city living to our rural past

High above the fields of Killiecrankie we made up rhymes and names for passing

polite strangers

You dared me out of earshot, faces beamed behind backs

MacGregor pulling on his lead to climb more snowed up steps

My winter jacket cast me out as a well dressed loon

Existing on the margins, exciting to be sharing Christmas with you all

I thought I’d see you up the Birks O’Aberfeldy, as if some common thoughts

would bring us together 10 years later

For nothing really just a look just to drink you in

I carry your memory like a big bag full of feathers once stuck in the back of

my throat but now a warming dream

Finally

I’m more concerned about keeping the neighbors cat out of my garden than who

you may or may not be fucking

And who may be dancing a jig in the middle

How stupid I was believing in fate and fairness and all the big questions that

I could not answer so I busied myself with the flippancy of art

(Instrumental Chorus)

The genius is the subtlety of the waves lapping on the shore slowly taking over

the dry shale

With it’s salty tongue like a lounge singer

And uppity nonchalance uncaring for the land it’s reclaiming uncaring for the

crowds it’s drawing

The next day I shall walk in it’s wake

Discovering the bones and the pottery once a native of this shoreline paying a

visit to the coast hoping to be recognized by descendants of descendants and

taken in and loved

Discovering the bones and the pottery once a native of this shoreline paying a

visit to the coast hoping to be recognized by descendants of descendants and

taken in and loved

From Baltimore we sailed hoping to escape my temper

I put you in a song wrapped you up with cotton wool

I cast you as an angel battling my demons

Cold bloodedly you took your opportunity

A North London Hogmanay the year my faith was shattered

A sunken city came alive with fireworks

Eager to please I sang like a stranger and me and my Taig friends we drank you

under the table

And the music you swore by it was nothing it was terrible

Scared by the noise of your shrieking the dog chased ghosts in the kitchen

He tore up newspapers and ate all the jam

And the glassware you collected was smashed and lilting on the floor

(Instrumental Chorus)

When the saddening sweeps through me like a stubborn sea wind

When I’m feeling my worst and the best news in world fails to move me

I cannot bare your touch or to share a word

Or gossip or humor well that’s when I need you most

Just to be here to be quiet and warm and free with the drink

Until I forget such moments exist

When the haar rolls in it’s just a question of waiting it out

And that’s when the music I swear gets me through

I close my eyes and everything is okay

When the haar rolls in it’s just a question of waiting it out

And that’s when the music I swear gets me through

I close my eyes and everything’s is okay

From Baltimore we sailed hoping to escape my temper

I put you in a song wrapped you up with cotton wool

I cast you as an angel battling my demons

North London Hogmanay the year my faith was shattered