Rusted Pipe

Another song about illness. It seems that the patient was able to speak and move once, but has since lost those abilities due to, perhaps, a head trauma or stroke. Now, they are beginning to regain these abilities, slowly and haltingly...

Through speech therapy of some sort, which has just begun: "Now the time has come to speak."

The speaker compares her ability to make sounds to "water through a rusted pipe." The sounds are sometimes human, like a "stutter," "moan," or a "mutter," sometimes animalistic, like a "hiss" (which could also be made by steam). Mostly, they are water-like, as she said to begin with: "gurgle," "rush," "foam."

The overall impression is that the words are halting, staccato, and intermittent. Above all, unintelligible.

The passage, from a literary standpoint, is a small masterwork of onomatopoeia. But not alliteration! There is the opposite of that-- competing sounds, a cacophony.

Then there is the bridge, which indicates that there was a long "winter" of no sound or movement-- a coma?-- before even this level of progress. The idea of a dormant period being compared to this season as is least as old as Shakespeare's line about a "winter of our discontent."

How is the progress? Speaking is but a "croak," followed by a frustrated, resigned "sigh."

Yet... even this "creak" from "somewhere deep within" her body and psyche "lets the tale begin." There is hope. A tale has a beginning, but then keeps progressing.

Then, in comes the physical therapist, who says, "Now the time has come to move." Similarly, progress is slow and long in coming. But, as before this shambling movement is a step past her earlier status, when she "was not able" to "move" at all.

Again, she compares her movements to water's: "trickle," "freeze." She falls a lot, too: "stumble," "trip," "fumble."

But still-- even though it is a mere "stagger" or "creep"-- there is forward movement. And when her legs fail, her hands can react to help; she is able to "grip."

Most importantly, she has not lost her sense of humor. The last two movements she says she can made are "slip and slide." While this may be a nod to the Paul Simon song "Slip-Slidin' Away," more likely it is an allusion to the childhood toy called a "slip 'n' slide."

This device, introduced in 1961 and an immediate success, is a plastic sheet, at one end of which is a perforated tube running its width. When a hose is connected to the tube, water seeps out of the perforations, rendering the entire sheet almost frictionless. Children then slide on the sheet on their bellies or backs, as if sledding.

That the speaker, in her almost-immobile and exceedingly frustrated state, can still joke is an excellent sign. That she can remember a happy childhood when movement was taken for granted is strong motivation for her to be able to endure the work needed to return to that state.

The "water" of her life-force is still flowing. It is only the "pipe"--its container, her physical body-- that is "rusted." With enough effort, the rust can be scrubbed off and the pipe should return to its healthier, more vigorous function.

Next Song: Book of Dreams