Here I Go

Call the doctor

I’m coming down

With a fever

Call a priest

I’m too scared to die

An unbeliever

Tell the truth:

Will I even

Notice?

Does it hurt?

And where does the darkness

Take us?

Here I go

Leaving my body behind

Just like my wallet, full of cash

For some lucky stranger to find

Do what you want

With the pictures, business cards

And the condom

I’m not coming back

And where I’m going 

I don’t need them

Here I go

Call out the punchline

Before the comedian

Finishes the joke

Swallow the bread

And gesture wildly

When you choke

There’s really no lesson

Nothing to learn

That’s worth keeping

It’s all transition

And that is why I’m leaving

Here I go

Leaving it all behind

God eats the fruit

And disposes of the rind

Take off your skin

After taking off your clothes

We’re getting out of here

To where?

No one knows

Here I go.


* These lyrics took a markedly gloomy and existential turn from where they began. I was talking to a friend on the phone about our various aches and pains, and was joking about I totally live up to the stereotype about how men turn into total babies when they’re sick. Then we got off the phone, and I thought about the narrator from ‘Notes From the Underground’ when he was talking about how gratifying it can be to complain about a toothache. That’s where the first lines came from. Then suddenly I heard Nick Cave’s voice singing the lines, and it ended up where it ended up.