The Animal Down at the Pond (Beaver)

Lyrics

[Intro]
Pemba drew a map of a place with rivers.
So many rivers.
Not like here.

[Verse 1]
She said there is an animal
who builds its own ponds.
Castor canadensis.
His teeth are orange from iron.
He cuts down aspen trees, willow trees.
Peels the bark in thin strips.
He is a carpenter who eats his own shavings.

[Chorus]
And I can almost see him,
the animal down at the pond that isn't here.
He swims out from his house of mud and sticks,
and sees me on the shore.
Then, a sharp crack.
His tail hits the water, a warning shot.
And he is gone.

[Verse 2]
A man named Samuel Hearne, he saw them.
He wrote it in a book in 1795.
He called them sagacious.
I know that word. It means wise.
Wise enough to build a dam two meters high,
with an entrance under the cold, still water.
Pemba says it smells of poplar wood and wet earth.

[Chorus]
And I can almost see him,
the animal down at the pond that isn't here.
He swims out from his house of mud and sticks,
and sees me on the shore.
Then, a sharp crack.
His tail hits the water, a warning shot.
And he is gone.

[Bridge]
Fifteen minutes.
He can hold his breath for fifteen minutes.
Swimming in the dark, five-degree water.
Safe from everything.
I close my eyes and I'm in Ontario.
The sun is going down.
The water lilies are closing.
And I am very, very still.
Just waiting.

[Outro]
The chalk dust has settled.
There are no rivers here.
Just the sound.
The echo of the tail slap on the water.
The water that is not here.