[Intro — layered acoustic entrance, bendir opens alone, oud enters with maqam Bayati figure, strings add sustained inner-voice counterpoint underneath, sub-bass and analog pad bloom in] [Verse 1] They stopped the car where the road drew to a close the driver said this is where we wait, and got out to smoke I was small enough to be lifted old enough to remember the color of the smoke the horizon held nothing but distance a wind came off the flat and drew through the dust the road named its ending in stone [Pre-Chorus] And the truck when it came came slowly diesel and grit in a common language the men in the bed with their AKs slung jjambiyas curved at their belts their eyes level, unimpressed the man at the wheel raised a hand [Chorus] Say the word for stranger, I would not know it say it in any tongue, in any climate I climbed the back of the truck like a wall someone's hand came down and I took it the desert made a room for me and the men made room [Verse 2] The sheikh's country was hours further on into a flat where nothing marked the distance where the thorn trees came low over the road with thorns as long as a hand the men in the bed ducked as we passed under them my head cleared them the custom of the guest is very old here older than the guns, older than the maps what you receive you accompany what you accompany you protect this is what my parents knew when they gave me over this is what I did not know [Instrumental Break — extended contrapuntal passage, oud enters with melodic phrase in maqam Bayati, string inner voices in independent motion underneath, bendir shifts to 3-against-2 polyrhythm against programmed hihat, sub-bass moving stepwise, pad wash sustaining, all voices interweaving with no featured solo, no vocal] [Bridge] Now the memory is a room I visit the child in the truck bed sits without me I cannot tell you how old the men were I cannot tell you their names they belong to a photograph that was never taken and the country they crossed does not survive my return [Chorus 2] Say the word for fear, I did not have it say it with any words, in any language the truck rolled through the empty someone's hand came down and I took it the desert made a room for me and the men made room [Outro] The sheikh was waiting the custom went on I was received I did not know that word either
