Last Plane to Jakarta | The Ghostly Reach of Chemistry Class

Our title refers to my desk in high school chemistry class, upon which I would scrawl the lyrics of the day which were haunting or helping me. For a while there I had a dialogue going with a girl who sat in the same desk as me a couple of periods later: I'd write down some Cure lyrics, she'd finish 'em. If it had been the indie rock age yet, this scenario would have been in danger of getting turned into an independent movie, but fortunately for everybody history had our backs.

I have nothing really to say this morning, though. Just that I've listened to a Sarah Dougher song called "Forty Hours" about ten times since yesterday, and now it's making me cry huge blubbering tears every time the first chorus comes around, and I have that urge to broadcast the lyrics to the entire world by whatever means possible, even though they probably rely on the music somewhat for their emotional weight: which is as it should be according to my math, since that watch-what-happens-when-I-bring-it-to-a-boil quality is precisely what makes songs God's special organic-android creatures.

Anyhow, yeah. It's from Day One, Dougher's solo debut, and the tear-jets reach their ain't-gonna-stop point right around the second chorus. Will we ever outgrow the urge, not to say "need," to scratch the words that mean the most to us into any available surface? Sweet God, I hope not. I don't want to contemplate what other crucial parts of our selves we'd have to've consequently left behind.

forty hours, all alone
outta Boston and San Antone
it'd be better if you were on your way home
sit quietly

thirty hours, Tennessee
I ask Jesus what will become of me
I never pray for what I miss
I never prayed until this

and I will pray however I want,
pray however I want,
pray however I want
and I will do whatever I want,
do whatever I want
do whatever I want

twenty hours, dream of love
all these people and God above
inside every house along the way:
possibility

and I will love whoever I want,
love whoever I want,
love whoever I want
and I will do whatever I want,
do whatever I want
do whatever I want

ten hours: I'm awake
I'll watch carefully what I make
I've made a few big mistakes
hope was never one, I don't think

and I will hope whatever I want,
hope whatever I want,
hope whatever I want
and I will do whatever I want,
do whatever I want
do whatever I want

The Ghostly Reach of Chemistry Class

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