If I had heard this song in the weeks following my husband’s abrupt departure, the magnitude of my identification with it would probably have kept me from seeing the point in ever getting out of bed at all.
“Woke Up New,” The Mountain Goats (from Get Lonely, 2006)
On the morning when I woke up
without you
for the first time
I felt free
and I felt lonely
and I felt scared
And I began to talk
to myself
almost immediately
Not being used
to being
the only person there
The first time I made coffee
for just myself
I made too much of it
But I drank it all
just ‘cause you hate it
when I let things go to waste
And I wandered through the house
like a little boy
lost at the mall
And an astronaut
could’ve seen
the hunger in my eyes from space
[chorus]
And I sang, Oh, What do I do, What do I do, What do I do?
What do I do
without you?
On the morning when I woke up
without you
for the first time
I was cold
so I put on a sweater
and I turned up the heat
And the walls began to close in
and I felt
so sad and frightened
I practically ran
from the living room
out into the street
And the wind began to blow
and all the trees
began to bend
And the world
in its cold way
started coming alive
And I stood there like a buisness man
waiting for a train
And I got ready
for the future
to arrive
And I sang, Oh, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do?
What do I do
without you?
