Walk Like Thunder

Walk Like Thunder - Aesop Rock/John Darnielle/Kimya Dawson/Nikolai Fraiture

I have this new tattoo of which the story must be told

About the night I almost overdosed ten years ago

I woke up in the hospital with skin clammy and cold

And tubes in my urethra down my throat and up my nose

My friends and the doctors were all shocked

I wasn't dead

That's when Katrina looked at me

And this is what she said

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

So I walked to the rebel spot

I walked all over uptown

I walked right side up and I walked upside down

I walked to Chetzemoka with my eyes

Fixed on the ground yeah

We walked all over Chetze beach and

Kept the rocks we found

Then I walked back to my parents' house

I walked back to my old bed yeah

I walked back and I walked fast past

All the voices in my head

I walked with the sweats and

I walked with the chills

I walked in New York city and

I walked in Bradford hills

I walked into open mic nights and

I walked into the rooms

I walked feeling optimistic and

I walked feeling doomed

I walked with some mama's boys and

I walked with some punks

I walked dressed up like a rabbit

I walked dressed up like a skunk

I walked with some givers and

I walked with some leeches

I walked all by myself and

I walked with the moldy peaches

I walked all over the world so

I could sing my songs to you

And to your most desperate emails

I said this is what I do

I walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

But at some point I got so comfortable

That I didn't even realize that

I'd started to crawl

That my old friend Amy died at

37 of a heart attack

And I cracked cause people my age

Are not supposed to die like that

No no no no people my age are not

Supposed to die like that

He was the old manager of the sidewalk cafe

That place was a second home to me

It's where I learned to play

And his personality really helped create a space

Where a bunch of honest misfits

Could all gather and feel safe

He was a cynic a supporter

He was crazy he was queer

He'd either yell out cut the bullshit

Or he'd say I'm glad you're here

And it was always such an honor

To have Amy on my side

That's why it hit me like a

Mack truck when I found out that he died

Yeah it hit me like a

Mack truck when I found that he died

Then enter Alex 33 years old and

So sick with the cancer

And trapped inside a body that

Betrayed his real gender

We all hoped and prayed that

He would go into remission

At least long enough just long

Enough to complete his transition

He said kimya did you know eleven

Teen's my favorite song

I said then get your a** on stage

Right now and you can sing along

That's the very first song I ever

Wrote all by myself

It's about angels and recovery and

Friends and hope and health

By the time we finished singing

He was pissed off he was scared

He said I lost my home my lover

My insurance and my hair

And now I'm about to lose you too my new friend

I looked into those big blue eyes

And said we'll meet again

Yeah I looked into his sad blue

Eyes and said we'll meet again

Then I got the phone call from

Alyssa and she told me he was dying

By the time I got to his bedside

We were both already flying

We held hands and we sang songs

Tried to be strong floated around

While I cursed the skin that he was

In for all the ways it had let him down

Yeah I cursed the skin that he was

In for all the ways it had let him down

But at the same time I was

Taking my own body for granted

First I lost sight of my feet

Then they became unplanted

And I never felt so stupid or

So selfish or so sad yeah

My body had been good to me and

I treated it so bad yeah

My body had been good to me and

I treated it so bad

Then he said mama

I don't want my friends to watch me die

So I kissed his cheek made him a

Shirt and then I said goodbye

And they cremated him in the shirt that I drew

Of the two of us that said they're flying over you too

Now the silver pink ponies

Have my home in their crew

So I tightened up my laces and

Knew what I had to do

I started walking again I started walking again

I miss my friends

I started walking again I started walking again

I miss my friends

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Walk like thunder

Even creatures of habit predisposed

To systematically clinging together in the cold

Know the measure of a pack it's not

A question of the whole

But the individuals that bottleneck into the fold

On a march black Sabbath

News from the ministry of make

Believe that reach a tarmac in Minneapolis

Middle seat yesterday the cells inside his

Chest were growing baby teeth

Today a raven radiated vacancy

Wait two years ago a friend of mine

Called me to redefine all enemy kind

I'm at the hospital in twenty four

And no one knew the future

I'll take it everybody knows the future

Antibodies hatching in a Hella

Back with no room to maneuver

Like disappearing pills into the masticated fuchsia

I asked you how you feeling you told me like a robot

I gave you a Nintendo you gave yourself a Mohawk

You let us wheel you down beneath

The leaning tower of flow charts

To be around your beats without a

Beeping sound of Bogart

And speak about whatever people speak about

When nobody's acknowledging the obvious

Disease about to crowbar in

Deplane slow comatose of baggage

From king of hearts to carrion for jackals

And never got to sing us all his own swan song right

Coincidentally the rebel in me walked like thunder

Walk like thunder