[Intro] [8 bars instrument, faint vocal hum] [C] soft hum: "mmm..." [Verse 1] [A] I will hush the apple dream, [A] Step back from graves that call. [B] I will fold my childhood seam, [B] Where water tore my heart in fall. [A] Don’t tell me dead men do not bleed, [A] Don’t say the hollow mouths are dry. [B] I feel the thirst beneath the reed, [B] A moon with fangs up in the sky. [Pre-Chorus] [2 lines, build] [A] Let me sleep a little while, [B] Let the world misjudge my smile. [Chorus] [repeatable, anthemic] [A] I want to sleep the dream of apples, [B] Lay my hours soft in clay. [A] Tell the earth a kinder rattle, [B] Keep my gold lips from the gray. [C] [ad-lib] "I am not gone... I am not gone..." [Verse 2] [A] Wrap me in the circling dawn, [A] Ants will march their tiny rites. [B] Wash my shoes, the sand is drawn, [B] Scorpions whisper through the nights. [A] I am the friend of west winds, [A] I am the long, wide shade of tears. [B] I hold the small, fierce sins, [B] That cut my heart to pieces, years. [Pre-Chorus] [A] Give me one small borrowed sleep, [B] A minute, century, a keep. [Chorus] [full] [A] I want to sleep the dream of apples, [B] Lay my hours soft in clay. [A] Teach a dirge to send me gentle, [B] Let the dark child keep the day. [C] [echo] "I will live... I will live..." [Bridge] [intense, spoken-sung half] [A] In this thin tent of dawn I lie, [B] Fingers of light like ants arrive. [A] If the bite should slip and find, [B] My heart still blooms — wild and kind. [C] [spoken] "Let them know I'm not erased." [Break] [instrumental, short solo 8 bars] [Chorus] [final, with lift — add higher harmony] [A] I want to sleep the dream of apples, [B] Hold my heartbeat in your hands. [A] Let the funeral sing me gentle, [B] That I may walk those open lands. [C] [high ad-lib runs] "Not gone... not gone... alive..." [Outro] [fading] [A] I keep the gold upon my lips, [B] I keep the child who loved to break. [A] On open waters, on small ships, [B] My scattered heart will wake. [C] [whisper] "Sleep now, sleep the apple dream..."
