Mimi Speaks

[Intro]
There is a girl out on the sea
Floating on a pink surfboard
With a picnic lunch and parasol
Sitting there like a typical girl

[Verse 1]
You don't know me but I've been hearing you all day
I thought that by ignoring you perhaps you'd go away
I thought it was just too much sun as I faced out across the bay
Hearing all these voices telling me how to spend my day
And then I turned around and I saw you standing there
Talking all this time, talking like you care
It's been ten years
And you haven't gone away
So I'm finally speaking up
It's time to have my say

[Verse 2]
First of all, my name isn't Mimi
My name is Ruth, that's right
Ruth-Mimadoni-Castradicus-Phaterpithecus-Triumvatini
And I came from a family of ten children, that's right
Tomboy, youngest
Learned to fight before I learned to walk, that's right
All cannons open by the age of two
By six I ruled the schoolyard
By fourteen I ruled the shopping lounge—malls
I was loud, active, restless, arrogant, aggressive, and strong
And I couldn't understand these flimsy little things
Called "teenage girls"
They'd scatter before me like ineffective little dolls
And I bullied them even more in my consternation
Trying to make them break out
Trying to beat them into consciousness
And then one day, I was working on this little bit of a thing
And I was trying to whip her into three dimensions
And she was shaking and she was looking so confused
Like a little puppy
And it was making me even madder
And I was just about to give her one last kick
When all of a sudden, she got real silent
I mean, real silent

[Verse 3]
From somewhere far away, I heard someone calling my name
They called
Ruth-Mimadoni-Castradicus-Phaterpithecus-Triumvatini
And a pink surfboard was handed to me
And a voice said "Her name is Mimi"
And they gently urged me forward to the edge of the water
That's right, and we moved out to sea, Mimi and me
Except I wasn't Mimi, it was the surfboard, and me
And the language between us was wordless
And it hung there in the air
And I spent a lot of time, you know, on that surfboard
Sitting in the sun
Thinking about the chains that bind and why
I was the only one who didn't seem to have any
And slowly it sort of came to me that
Maybe I was a prisoner of being oh-so-free
And some days I hated the pink, I hated the pink
Pink for weakness and girls and posies
And oppression and subjugation
And asexuality and moral shrivenness
And ignorance and painted toesies
And yet it's pink, you know, that is my friend out here
On the sea that I'm, I'm learning how to fear
And it's pink that's showing me the way
Showing me how to not always have my say
To hear perhaps what you might have to say

[Verse 4]
(Stand up, Mimi)
What?
(Stand up, Mimi)
I've heard that
(Stand up, MImi)
Oh, it's like an old dream
(Stand up)
And you know now, do you understand after what I've said to you
That by saying "Stand up," you're talking to a natural athlete
That's not so hard for me
I think the hardest thing that I've ever done
Is to feel so incomplete

[Outro]
A strange thing happened
On a local beach that day
One girl paddled out to sea
And the other walked away
(I scan the horizon for you, Mimi)
(I still mean what I said, Mimi)
I know

I want to say
I really appreciate you coming along with us on our adventures
We uh, you know we, these are sort of one-time shows
And uh, they're here and then they're gone
And we don't know what to expect and you don't know what to expect
But you come with a really great energy and I appreciate it