[Intro] [soft bass walk-in, brushes whispering] It started with a smell while driving my car thin at first I figured it was only the outside air But minutes later it was still there [Verse 1] While parked in the hot July sun the cabin baked like an oven seat belt buckle hot as a brand and out of nowhere I sense its presence Not perfume, not takeout, not that gym bag shame Something greener sadder Sweet on the edge of sick I look over Passenger seat empty Glove box, clean enough Cupholders, guilty but innocent And then I see it Down on the floor mat Like it took a dive for cover A zucchini A single Out-of-place Mystery Zucchini [Chorus] How long you been riding with me, friend Silent in the shadows, sweating in the heat Who put you here Why’d you choose my car And how do we end up Sharing this slow, soft ruin together [Verse 2] This zucchini’s not the proud kind shiny, smug, stacked in rows (it's) soft at the middle skin buckling spots like bruised moons I lift it with two fingers like it might confess check the stem check my memory Did I buy this? Did someone leave it? Or maybe someone’s groceries got tangled up with mine and somewhere there’s another car haunted by a spoiled pork loin A mystery zucchini is a kinder curse than a mystery pork loin Or maybe they’re vegetarian in their kitchen searching their fridge for the missing zucchini [Chorus] How long you been riding with me, friend Breathing your slow steam in this small world Did you hear me curse traffic hum my tired love songs Did you listen to my lonely while you quietly collapsed [Bridge] Maybe you rolled from a grocery bag way back in early June tucked beneath the seat like a runaway Or maybe some mischievous kid picked it from someone’s garden saw my car’s open window and made the greatest ever zucchini-ball shot Some people find letters loose change, old photos I find a zucchini dying on my floorboard writing its elegy in odor [Verse 3] So here’s the punchline, pal I carry you at arm’s length out through the shimmering heat to the big green mouth that eats everything Soft thud lid closes like a curtain intermission But beyond my driveway you’ll be buried deep folded into bigger forgetting plastic, paper, peel summer after summer Long after this car this city this tired July somewhere under our feet there you’ll be my accidental passenger preserving your seeds [Final Chorus] How long you been riding with me, friend long enough to ride past the end From the floor of my car to a hill of everything left behind Mystery zucchini going to the landfill to live forever [Outro] Windows down new air in the cabin but in the upholstery of memory you’re still there soft sweet and still a mystery
