Meridians (Vocal Mix)

Lyrics

At three thousand feet The night was placid and clear The stillness unbroken Upon a vast carpet of nautical miles With light air streams The troposphere rippled Enfolding me within its cool nitrogen arms Looking below I saw Hills and valleys Fields and lakes Extending out towards the skyline Glancing above, I saw A resplendent planetarium of stars Against a fathomless vertical void Whose immensity seemed to expunge The nanoscopic awareness That was myself Levitating lower I absorbed sounds from the terrain Cricket, mole, fox and owl Peeped and crooned their refrain From pasture and branch Soaring over a hay meadow I skirted a cloud of bats, bathing in the compression Of their larynx-ultrasound As it wrinkled the air Climbing at Mach velocities I found myself in the mesopause Staring down at the curvature of the horizon Here, at the fringe of space Orbiting the zenith between night and day I detected sounds of a different type Sounds that leaked off the planet Sounds from super-cities and small townships Hissed curses and soothing assurances: 7.2 billion tongues gesticulating In horror, elation and surrender Grappling with the pronouncement Of being alive Speaking to each other To themselves To the immeasurable abyss Through which they hurled Overcome with empathy A thought suddenly struck me: How did I arrive here Upon the edge of the world? What has become of my body? Have I died? Is this an afterlife? Or was I ever really born? How can I see and hear without eyes and ears Feel and think without a brain? It must be that I am only dreaming And is this moment Suspended above this exquisite orb