Sarah Dougher :: the Ground Below
If you’ve just met that sort-of-special someone and you’re looking for that perfect song that says “I care, but not too much” or “I like you and tentatively hope you like me (but I rather doubt it)” or “We all know that love is a lie, but I am experiencing intense biochemical reactions around you that indicate a certain physical compatibility that may prove fruitful to explore would you be so inclined,” then you are not looking for the Ground Below. This song is not for pussyfooting around. It’s for that moment, usually around 3 am, when you realize that there’s hours left before light and you have nothing to fill them but desire for someone who’s not there. Saying “you’re my world” won’t work because that’s a dumb cliché. Luckily, Sarah Dougher found a way to say exactly that minus the dumb:
Every sky your eye
every star you are
every word I know
and the ground below.
It’s naked. It’s over the top. It’s also the truth, and you can’t take it back. Give it only to someone you can’t describe with qualifiers. I did, because it said the words I wanted to but couldn’t find and it said them clear as day.
I’m looking at the mix I put it on now, with its hand-painted cover and painstaking tiny writing. After years spent in two cars and four houses in states separated by a thousand miles, the case is so scratched that it’s nearly opaque. It’s one of hundreds we have, yet when I asked for it my husband instantly knew where it was. I knew he would. It’s why I gave it to him.
I love you, Hiram. Happy anniversary.
the Ground Below
Sarah Dougher (homepage)
hiram said on monday, may 05th, 2008
Melissa said on monday, may 05th, 2008
Being broke means you give each other mixes and blog posts for those big milestones. We’ll only do this once a year so if it makes people sick, they can pray for us to win big at the ponies.
jenny said on tuesday, may 06th, 2008
well i think it’s fuckin sweet. but that’s because i’m cheeeeeesy
Domenico said on tuesday, may 06th, 2008
let love live without shame.
Ah, thanks for the present. Me too, Melissa.
(I get this feeling that people will grow tired of our emotional outpourings soon and we’ll have to resort to Slayer songs, but if this is what is to happen, so be it.)