Communist Daughter

Jeff Mangum

Sweet communist
The communist daughter
Standing on the seaweed water
Semen stains the mountaintops
Semen stains the mountaintops

With cocoa leaves along the border
Sweetness sings from every corner
Cars careening from the clouds
The bridges burst and twist around

And wanting something warm and moving
Bends towards herself the soothing
Proves that she must still exist
She moves herself about her fist

Sweet communist
The communist daughter
Standing on the seaweed water
Semen stains the mountaintops
Semen stains the mountaintops


(Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, 1998)

Jeff Mangum – Lexington, KY, 10.23.08

Jeff Mangum, “Engine” – Pittsburgh, 10.18.08

[Updated]


Engine
For I am an engine and I’m rolling on
Through endless revisions to state what I mean
For sweetness alone who flew out through the window
And landed back home in a garden of green

You’re riding alone in the back of a steamer
And steaming yourself in the warm shower spray
And water rolls on off the round captain’s belly
Who’s talking to tigers from his cafeteria tray

And sweet babies cry for the cool taste of milking
That milky delight that invited us all
And if there’s a taste in this life more inviting
Then wake up your windows and watch as the sweet
babies crawl away


Neutral Milk Hotel - Engine - 10/18/2008 Brillobox, Pittsburgh PA from Engine on Vimeo.

In Columbus, OH, 10.19.08:


(More at Pitchfork, including these photos.)