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- <b>[Section 1]</b>
- [Verse 1]
- Woke up this morning hungry, I walked along the Bay of Kotor
- There's a market down there, past the sailboats, down the gravel road
- I went looking for the kittens that I saw last night, and their protective mother
- I found two short-haired cow-print kittens and the little gray one, they were all cuddled up
- [Verse 2]
- The little gray one didn't look up, I blew her kisses
- She never turned her head, I petted her with my index finger
- Felt her spine, she was all bones, not much flesh, she was dying
- The other two kittens each had an eye missing
- [Verse 3]
- The mother sat close by and got up once to lick them
- They sat quietly in an opening of the stone wall along the water
- A rectangular shaped hole in the middle of the wall with rusty iron bars
- And as I watched, I heard another kitten cry
- [Verse 4]
- From the other side of the wall, which stood about ten to twelve feet high
- There's nothing I hate more than the sound of hungry animals crying
- There's nothing I hate more than the sound of hungry animals crying
- There's nothing I hate more than the sound of hungry animals crying
- There's nothing I hate more than the sound of hungry animals crying
- [Verse 5]
- Finding footing in the nook, I climb the stone wall
- The dog walkers looked at me as if I was mentally ill
- I saw another black-and-white kitten on the other side of the wall
- Meowing "please mommy, please feed me, I'm hungry"
- [Verse 6]
- She was looking into my eyes from the field of purple flowers
- She was pawing at the wall, trying to get to her mother, and her sister, and her brother
- Stretched out from back to front paw she was maybe a foot long
- And she cried, "waaah, waaah, waaah, waaah"
- <b>[Section 2]</b>
- [Verse 7]
- She had about five feet there, to get up to the nest
- Of her siblings, to her mother's love, for that kitty in the purple flowers
- Her mother didn't budge
- [Verse 8]
- I could've hurled myself over, to rescue the little one
- But I would've broken my ankle like Dustin Hoffman in <i>Papillon</i>
- I walked further down the street to the market on the corner
- Where the locals and the tourists are gathered at 7 o'clock in the morning, waiting for the store to open
- [Verse 9]
- When it opened, I walked up and I down its lonely lanes
- Listeneding to the customers and clerks speaking various foreign languages
- I bought oranges and water, sardines, and bananas
- Two mega-sized cans of tuna and carried the groceries past the dog walkers
- <b>[Section 3]</b>
- [Verse 10]
- I saw the mother cat with the two kittens, but the gray one was gone
- Maybe her mother pushed her over, down to the purple flowers, to join the other one
- When I petted the gray one earlier her chin was leaning on the edge of the wall, faced down towards the flowers
- I thought of Mickey Rourke in <i>Spun</i>, he said, "My mom was drowning puppies in the bathtub. Why keep what you can't feed?"
- <b>[Section 4]</b>
- [Verse 11]
- I opened the cans of tuna, with the lid, and tossed them tuna over the wall
- Aiming for the spot where I've seen the hungry kitten trying to crawl
- And I sat the cans down near the kittens nest, two healthier cats smelled the tuna
- Slouched their way over, one black, one butterscotch vanilla
- <b>[Section 5]</b>
- [Verse 12]
- Jet-lagged, a big wave hit me
- I did all I could've done
- I walked to the hotel breakfast room
- With a maid who seems to have taken a liking to me
- Mirjana, saw me eating my eggs like a hungry prisoner and said
- "Easy, easy!"
- [Verse 13]
- I came back to my room
- A book has been on the bedside stand since I arrived here
- I'm not sure what language it's in, but it says
- "Svetski bestseler #1, Danielle Steel"
- The four biggest words on the book were spelled like this:
- "K-N-J-I-G-A
- S-A-D I Z-A-U-V-E-K"
- <b>[Section 6]</b>
- [Verse 14]
- I couldn't fall asleep, Mirjana came and knocked on my door
- "Here are some towels. Come, eat, Mark! Eat, eat, you must eat some more!"
- "Give me a few minutes", I said, "I'll be right over"; "Oh, you, Mark! Come down!"
- And when I walked towards the breakfast area she ordered me to get the others, she said, "Mark, g0o get them now"
- [Verse 15]
- I said, "I can't wake them", I told her, "they're sleeping and they need some rest"
- "Tell me", she said, "why do you look like this? So sad all the time... so sad... why, Mark? Why Do you look like this?"
- "'Cause I'm jet-lagged", I told her, "and then my clock is off
- Please knock on my door around 5 p.m. to wake me and you might just see a happier Mark"
- [Verse 16]
- "You might even see a smile!"; And she said, in her Serbian accent, "I will do that! Do you know who you remind me of, Mark?"
- "Who?", I said; "John Malkovich"
- I ate some cereal and scrambled eggs and went back to bed
- She knocked on my door an hour early, 4 p.m.
- [Verse 17]
- "Mark, wake up! Wake up!"; I picked up my pants from the floor
- I put on some slippers and my t-shirt and decided to swim in the Bay of Kotor
- The same shirt I've been wearing for the last three days
- And I walked down the path of oleanders, wisteria, and agave
- [Verse 18]
- And the palm trees to the bay; my stomach growled with hunger so I kept walking past the boats and the sunbathers
- The dog walkers with their dogs on their collars, and the stray dogs, and the skinny cats, to a restaurant called "Ellas"
- <b>[Section 7]</b>
- [Verse 19]
- A waitress named Sandra came and took my order
- "Fish soup with Greek salad, please, and a large bottle of sparkling water"
- I looked across the Aquafresh-Crest-toothpaste-colored water
- At the town of Muo with the little stucco houses with the Spanish roofs
- [Verse 20]
- I asked Sandra what the orange things were, floating in the water
- She said, “They’re called 'bova' and they have nets and they harvest black mussels”
- On my walk back to the hotel I jumped into the Bay of Kotor
- As I walked along the mossy rocks the moss soothed the bottom of my feet
- [Verse 21]
- I was wading out in the seaweed looking at the girls layin’ out in their bikinis
- I never wrote a song about girls in bikinis; if I did, maybe I’d have a hit like The Beach Boys
- I saw a bandmate walking down the road
- He noticed me out in the water and said, "Hey, Mark, soundcheck' s pretty soon, we better go”
- [Verse 22]
- While we were rehearsing, Mirjana heard the music echoing around the tile floor
- She knocked on the door and asked if she could come listen, and we said, "Yeah, sure!"
- She heard two songs, we said, "What do you think?; she said, “Sounds like Steely Dan, but crazy!”
- <b>[Section 8]</b>
- [Verse 23]
- Sea Rock Festival, July 21
- From the start my guitar was out of tune
- So I sat it on the stand and walked towards the front of the stage
- Howled to the castles up in the mountains and sang tunefully to the moon
- [Verse 24]
- Ramon on guitar, Chris on Piano, they held their end stoically and steadily
- A nice, receptive, family-oriented crowd; I didn’t make adjustments for them
- [Verse 25]
- I gave them the good, the bad, the ugly
- I sang <i>Mother’s Love</i>, and <i>666 Post</i>, and I encouraged them to cheer
- for Andrew Golota, though I doubt many there heard of him in Montenegro
- It was a fun night, cathartic and exhilarating
- <b>[Section 9]</b>
- [Verse 26]
- The next day at lunch a stray dog kept me company over at Ellas
- The waiter came by and had the check in his hand in an oblong folder
- He was asking me in Serbian if I was ready for the check
- (I thought that’s what he was asking)
- [Verse 27]
- And when I nodded, "Yes", he smacked the dog on the butt
- The dog let out a high-pitched "Woof!" and ran off
- I stood up and said, "Why did you do that!?"; he said "Dogs are problem here"
- I went and found the dog and petted his head
- [Verse 28]
- Lured him back to my table with a piece of French bread, he sat next to my table
- I told the waiter, "Don’t ever do that again
- It’s ok. I like the dog near me"
- The dog was picky and didn’t like the bread
- So I put a piece of penne pasta up to his nose instead
- [Verse 29]
- And he bit my hand, finicky stray
- "That’s OK", I told him. "Bite my hand all you want
- Keep me company awhile. Your bites are nothing compared to the sick feeling I suffer
- Every time I turn on American TV news channels"
- <b>[Section 10]</b>
- [Verse 30]
- I paid the check and left with my large bottle of sparking water
- And when I got up, Mirjana had just been seated at a nearby table with another maid
- She said, "Mark, I must tell you. You are like a machine
- You Sleep, you eat, you shit, you make music. You are a machine"
- [Verse 31]
- I said "I guess so" and I went back to my room.
- At about 9 p.m. Chris knocked on my door and woke me
- Chris and Ramon and I took a cab into the old part of town for dinner
- But before we left, three maids, including Mirjana, who are always sitting down the cement walkway from me
- Drinking wine, coffee, and smoking cigarettes
- Observing the coming and goings of passersby, started talking to us
- <b>[Section 10]</b>
- [Verse 32]
- ...Chris and Ramon, with me standing right there, "I told Mark today
- He is a machine. He eats, sleeps, shits, and plays music. This man is a machine"
- Then she introduced us to Ljiljana, whom I already met a bunch of times
- And the other maid who has never spoken a word to me, Milica
- [Verse 33]
- Mirjana pointed to Milica and said, "Mark, Milica has something to tell you
- She wants to marry you", I took a step back
- Then I smiled and said "Her and I have never spoken a word
- But, yeah, If I lived in Kotor, sure... why not... I would marry her"
- Then Milica corrected Mirjana in Serbian
- Mirjana then said to me, "Oh, I misunderstood
- Milica said she wants to fuck you”
- [Verse 34]
- Ramon and Chris and I let out an awkward giggle, then we were speechless
- I then politely asked Mirjana what her friend’s name was again
- "It’s Milica, you crazy man! You are crazy!"
- Ramon saved me, “Hey you guys, I want to get going, I just wanna get a cab"
- That was our segue and Chris and I followed along
- [Verse 35]
- But not before I told the maids, "Hey, you all have a nice life here
- Drinking wine among friends, looking out at the bay
- I’ve seen you all at the restaurant down the street and laying out on the beach
- This is a nice life you have, ending your days this way
- It’s beautiful here - the smell of the salt water and the Italian pines"
- <b>[Section 11]</b>
- [Verse 36]
- "Fuck you, crazy man! You join us in the kitchen tomorrow!
- Work with us and see how good this life is, you fuck!"
- "Hey", I told her, "We all have to go to work
- You think this life is glamourous? It took me 30 hours to get here
- And I'm gonna spend 30 hours in airports and on airplanes to get home"
- [Verse 37]
- She said, "I know, I know, you work hard, Mark, It’s true, I know
- You know something? You look like John Malkovich"
- I said, "I know, you told me that earlier"
- I'll never forget Mirjana
- I think I’ll send her a postcard when I get back to San Francisco
- <b>[Section 12]</b>
- [Verse 38]
- After having dinner in the old part of town, Ramon stayed to see some jazz
- And Chris and I came back with a plan to meet in five minutes down by the gate and go for a walk along the bay
- I walked down to my room and Milica appeared with a large empty water bottle
- "Water?", she asked; I think it was Freudian, to see if I wanted to fill the bottle
- I said that I'd be ok, but for her to please wait, and that I’d bring her a CD
- (Mirjana said that Milica wanted a copy of my music)
- I gave her <i>Mark Kozelek Night Talks</i> and she shyly walked off towards their little smoking area
- And that’s the last I’ve seen of her before the night
- I know the loneliness of the road but in that moment I knew the loneliness of the live-in maid
- [Verse 39]
- Chris and I then walked along the bay and to my usual spot, Ellas
- The same place where the waitress explained the orange things that harvested mussels
- And where the guy whacked the dog on the butt.
- We had sparkling water and ice cream
- Howe Gelb stopped by and said hi
- I’m back in my room now
- I’ve not turned on this TV since I’ve been here... bliss
- It’s 3:29 a.m.
- Goodnight from my hotel room
- Kotor, Montenegro, 7/23/2018
- <b>[Section 13]</b>
- [Verse 40]
- Today I awoke at 6:55 a.m, in time for breakfast
- Mirjana said to me, "This thing you say last night... about how we have a good life... why... why did you say that to us?"
- I think she thought I was being patronizing but I wasn’t
- I said, "I told you that because I grew up in the middle of a bunch of cornfields, nowhere near the Adriatic Sea or the Bay of Kotor"
- [Verse 41]
- "You seem to have a nice bond with your co-workers and it seems like a nice place to relax
- And at the end of the day to look up at the stars
- But this is my weekend trip and this is your everyday, so I understand if you’re upset by what I said”
- She said, “My friends only think of themselves. Never mind all of this beauty you see. It’s inside of here!", pointing to her chest
- Inside of here, Mark, is shit. They tell me, 'Do this! Do that!' This life is shit!"
- [Verse 42]
- I got up and hugged her and told her that I meant no harm, that I meant well
- That I understood she works very hard, and we hugged for a long time, no nervous pats on the back
- She said "What will you do now, after breakfast?"; I said "The same think I always do - go back to my room and get some sleep"
- She told me, "Please, come back before 10 o'clock in the morning and eat some more", and I said I'd try
- [Verse 43]
- She wrote her name on a piece of paper; I told her I’d send her a postcard if I didn't get a chance to say goodbye
- I went back to bed and woke up at 12:25 p.m.
- I'm gonna walk along the road to Ellas, past the stray cats, and dogs, and oleanders, and agave, and palm trees, and sailboats, and sunbathers again
- Taking a towel and plan to wade around in the Bay of Kotor one last time
- [Verse 44]
- 3 a.m. call for our flight back to San Francisco from some place in Croatia tonight
- I’m back in my room; it was overcast and I skipped swimming
- I just shadow boxed four three-minute rounds with a bottle of water in each of my hands
- 3:12 p.m, Kotor, Montenegro, 7/23/2018
- [Verse 45]
- I wrote those then words then back in July, but just sending them today, August 15th, 2018
- It's day 6 of the six-day recording session, we're wrapping up this record with a recording of [?] and [?]
- Last night I told Nathan, "Man, my ears are burned out, I'm so fucking tired. Let's go to Colombo tomorrow, the town they discovered gold
- Back on January 24th, my birthday, but, you know, 1828"; Nathan said, "Sure, ok. We'll go"
- [Verses 46]
- So we drove out there this morning and got in the water and I swam from one side of the American river to the other, and back
- I picked some blackberries and put them in my bottle of water, and planted a cactus that was getting too big for my appartment
- It was nice to see all of the apple orchards and cows along the way; we talked about what guys have been to Vacaville, what guys have been to Folsom Prison
- I need to go out there and do all that to be able to do what I just did
- Goodnight
- 9:55 p.m, August 15th, 2018
- San Francisco
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