My Favorite Plum

This waltz is about the deliciousness of wanting and waiting and not-yet-having. It is the last song on Vega's Nine Objects of Desire, on which they are, um, 12 songs. So it is unclear how, among the other songs, these nine objects are distributed; some songs must have none, while others have one-- and maybe more-- apiece.

What is clear is that this song is about one object, a plum, and the desire for that object. Another object of desire is the "tombstone" from the previous song, most likely. She never outright says she wants a tombstone, though, just that she "likes" tombstones.

This plum, however, she clearly desires. The entire song is about wanting it-- or whatever it represents. I mean, could a whole song just be about wanting this one plum?

One of the reasons the plum might be so desirable is outlined right off: it "hangs so far from me." Distance, like absence, can make the heart grow fonder. Also, it "sleeps," and "lays/ languid." The inner flesh presses the outer skin, indicating that it is "bursting with secrets." And all while "never noticing me here below." How temptingly coy!

Its appearance? "See how it shines." Its flavor? "It will be so sweet." It is luscious? "I've been so dry/ It would make my heart complete."

How does it... sound? It "calls" to her. It wants her to consume it, she just knows. And all this lying about? "It lies in wait for me."

She knows she wants this one and none else: "This is the one for me." This refrain will be repeated. She has "seen," even "had," the "rest"... and also the "best"-- this one-- which "is the one for me."

However, the course of true love never did run smooth. There exists the possibility that she may not achieve this plum: "Maybe a girl will take it/ Maybe a boy will steal it/ Maybe a shake of the bough/ Will wake it and make it fall." And so, "You say that I'm foolish to trust."

Yet, her faith is unshaken: "It will be mine, and I know it must." How can she be so certain? She is "right here/ Longing endlessly." When it falls, she will be there to catch it.

In many ways, the singer is in the same position as the figures on Keats' Grecian urn: "Fair youth... thou canst not leave thy song... Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss/ Though winning near the goal."

Does this sound frustrating? Keats says no: "Do not grieve... For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!.. For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd/ For ever panting, and for ever young."

So too, in this song, we find a moment frozen in time-- the wanting of the ripe, succulent plum, the imagining its smooth rind giving way to the teeth, the longing for the shock of sweet wetness as the pulp caresses the tongue, the dreaming of the sticky juice running rivulets down the chin...

You know, this song may not be about a plum, after all.

Next Song: Lightning