Flashback to '91, the summer of the crazy sun Hurricane Bob was on the run, the warnings had begun But nine-year-old logic is a narcotic, chaotic My brother and me, aquatic, idiotic, quixotic Cousins in the mix, Uncle John with all his tricks Mom's brother on the scene, but his judgment had some kinks Mom's screaming from the porch, her voice a scorching torch "Get out that water 'fore I march you both to church!" But the Atlantic was our playground, a churning, frothy battleground Waves like liquid mountains, a thunderous, profound sound The sky was eggplant purple, the seagulls flew in circles The undertow was sucking like a hungry ocean gerbil We were body-surfing chaos, laughing in the maelstrom's face No concept of the danger, just the thrill of the chase The salt spray was a shotgun blast, stinging us with every cast The lifeguard chair was empty, the warnings had been passed But we were invincible, principles of physics were invisible The storm surge was our jungle gym, the risk was indivisible From the swirling foam, a lesson I would carry home Sometimes the wildest seed is in the fertile loam you're thrown [Chorus] Eye of the storm, where the chaos is born The silence is a lie before the city gets torn Clockwork of the wind, watch the world spin thin You can board up the glass, but you can't keep it in When the pressure gonna drop, make your heart rate stop From the bottom to the top, let the hurricane rock Let it rock, let it rock, let the hurricane rock No shelter from the sound when the sky unlocks [Verse 5] A rogue wave grabbed my ankle, a liquid shackle, no debacle Spun me like a washing machine, a submarine, a jackal There with cousin Chris beside, my best friend in the rising tide We were laughing at the danger on a hurricane ride Tumbling in the tumble cycle, swallowing the brine disciple My brother's hand a distant star, my lungs a burning rifle The world was black and green, a washing machine of unseen The surface was a memory, a fever dream at thirteen Warm water brought the stinging war, blue banners from the ocean floor Man o' war like ghostly wires in the storm-tossed core Jellyfish like living whips, brushing past our flailing hips Every touch a fire kiss, a venom on our lips Then I popped up gasping, a fish out of water grasping The beach had disappeared a hundred yards, my mind was rasping Paddling with noodle arms, ignoring all the phantom harms The current was a muscle, flexing all its liquid charms Across the bay the waves would stray, rolling where the ferries play But the shoreline stayed a mirror, flat and oddly gray My brother's face was pale as paste, we'd finally gotten a taste Of what a real storm's hunger was, no time to waste We staggered to the dunes, two buffoons beneath the moons Of a sky still boiling over, singing cataclysmic tunes Mom's fury was a hurricane itself, a category five of health She turned on Uncle John as well, a tempest in her chest She wrapped us up in towels, her scowl a fortress tower And I realized the storm outside was nothing to her power [Chorus] Eye of the storm, where the chaos is born The silence is a lie before the city gets torn Clockwork of the wind, watch the world spin thin You can board up the glass, but you can't keep it in When the pressure gonna drop, make your heart rate stop From the bottom to the top, let the hurricane rock Let it rock, let it rock, let the hurricane rock No shelter from the sound when the sky unlocks [Bridge 2] Now I'm older, supposedly wiser, a weather analyzer But I still chase the pressure drop, a storm-chasing geyser 'Cause that kid in the ocean learned a permanent potion That safety's an illusion, just a temporary lotion We were swimming with my cousins, Uncle John the one who wasn't Doing what a sitter does when the warnings buzz and buzzin' The real living happens when the barometer's collapsing When you're gasping and you're grasping and your comfort zone is lapsing Bob was just a category two, a mild debut But it baptized me in chaos, gave my soul its due Now every hurricane's a callback to that day in '91 When I learned that nature's just a loaded gun for everyone [Verse 6] The news said Bob killed eighteen souls along the coast I toast to their ghosts with this hurricane host I was lucky, just a mucky little ducky in the sucky But that brush with the abyss made me plucky, not yucky I still see Uncle John grin, saying "C'mon, throw the kids in" He should've kept us home, but he dove us in the din Man o' war in warmer swells, silent bells with poison spells Risen with the storm to tell their electric tales Now I'm boarding up my own windows with my own kids in tow Telling them the story of how Grandpa's hair turned snow They think I'm exaggerating, fabricating, overstating 'Til they see my eyes go distant when the wind starts escalating I say "Kids, there's a madness in the wind's caress A beautiful sadness in its deadly address" They don't get it yet, but they will when they get wet In some futur
