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Some philosophies fuel a belief in the self
Constructed to keep one's goods on one's own shelf
Built well you're a strong letter I
With the feet on the ground and the head to the sky
Now and then you can bend
It's okay to lean over my way
You fear that you can't do it all
And you're right
Even diligent day takes relief every day
From its work making light from the night
And when you're holding me
We make a pair of parentheses
There's plenty space to encase
Whatever weird way my mind goes
I know I’ll be safe in these arms
If something in the deli aisle makes you cry
You know I’ll put my arm around you
And I’ll walk you outside
Through the sliding doors
Why would I mind?
You're not a baby if you feel the world
All of the babies can feel the world
That's why they cry
Constructed to keep one's goods on one's own shelf
Built well you're a strong letter I
With the feet on the ground and the head to the sky
Now and then you can bend
It's okay to lean over my way
You fear that you can't do it all
And you're right
Even diligent day takes relief every day
From its work making light from the night
And when you're holding me
We make a pair of parentheses
There's plenty space to encase
Whatever weird way my mind goes
I know I’ll be safe in these arms
If something in the deli aisle makes you cry
You know I’ll put my arm around you
And I’ll walk you outside
Through the sliding doors
Why would I mind?
You're not a baby if you feel the world
All of the babies can feel the world
That's why they cry
Lyrics submitted by fancyashley
Track duration: 03:36
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FIRST of all i would just like to say that CAPITALLETERS is the only frickin' person with a brain in this god-forsaken chat room and his comment about everyone taking English Literate classes was ESPECIALLY intriguing.
OKKKAYYYY this song is DEFINiTELY NOT cute. I cut myself to this song every night before I knock myself with Xanax. Sometimes my girlfriend and I listen to it while we have rough sex, but that's just me. This song is about the pain of the world as seen through a transvestite's eyes. The deli isle is the tranny's loss of manhood aka "meat". Anyone who can't CLEARLY see that is f'd up!
MJ: Another beautifully sad lyric on that record is the one that goes, “If something in the deli aisle makes you cry…”
KM: What’s funny is that I made that up in my head around you.
MJ: Really?
KM: Yeah, we were in the Whole Foods, when I was visiting you in Portland one time, and I was staring at the overwhelming mass of all the food, kind of personal but really so impersonal. I had that really overwhelmed feeling; just wanting someone to come up and see that, and see me, and see that they should walk me outside.
MJ: Right, but I guess I didn’t walk you outside, did I? That’s not the punch line: you were waiting and then I walked you out? You probably didn’t even tell me.
KM: I don’t think I would have taken the risk to expect that from you at that point. I think my eyes were a little watery, and I was like, “Do you ever want someone to walk you out the door? Just put their arm around you and walk you out?”
MJ: I was probably like, “Get it together, Khaela!”
KM: You were just like, “We need food.”
MJ: That’s so funny, because I’ve imagined those two women in the deli aisle. So just say the lyrics so we have it.
KM: [in a normal speaking voice] If there’s something in the deli aisle that makes you cry / You know I’ll put my arm around you and walk you outside / through the sliding doors / Why would I mind?
MJ: OK, but you sing it much less flip. I love the “why would I mind?” part. It implies that someone else is saying “Do you mind doing this for me? Is this OK?” That’s the part that breaks my heart, because it’s very female to feel like that’s too much to ask.
KM: Yeah, yeah, totally.
MJ: Even in your fantasies there’s an implicit apology. That’s the extra part that you probably don’t even think about, I’m guessing. I don’t, when I’m writing. When people ask me, “Is there a female point of view in your work?” I’m always like, I don’t know. I’m just me, and am I even human? But when I heard that line, I was like, Oh, no guy would have that fantasy of someone saying, “Why would I mind?”
KM: It seems like a lot to ask.
MJ: Yeah, it’s so much to ask! [Both laugh]
In the chorus, the lyrics go on to talk about this parentheses, but although you get a sense of two people, you also get a sense that there is only one person: "There's plenty space to encase whatever weird way my mind goes." Kind of like, her mind and her body. Where her mind goes is within the parentheses and does not exist in the physical world. The physical arms are the parentheses that cradle this person, baby, or herself, with understanding and compassion.
Crying in a deli isle is not macho at all.. A very emotional person would cry at whatever they experience there. In this song it is very sweet and unconditional with the "of course i'll wrap my arms around you and walk you outside" (in the above lyrics it says 'you know' instead of 'of course'), and again the arms cradle with understanding only the more physical, neutral part of the self could provide.