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I Think I'm Coming Down With Something Serious

from Wet Match by Sam Steffen

/

lyrics

I came here by request to see my cousin whose been ill
Intending to remain but a week or so
My very first day here, I came down with a chill
That was nearly seven years ago

They put me in a room where a man had just expired
Of some disease of which I’m sure I’d never heard
They told me all about how much he’d been admired
And how sad it was his condition could not be cured—

Chorus- I think I’m coming down with something serious
I don’t know how long it’ll be before I’m over this
I think I’m coming down with something serious
I don’t know if I’ll be getting up again

I’m sweating like a pig but I could use another sheet
My temperatures somewhere around 103
This morning I woke up and then I fell right back to sleep
When I opened up my eyes I could not see

There’s a man here with a cough so bad he cannot talk
Just hacks and wipes his blood off in his sleeve
I asked the nurse, “How long before I get to see the doc?”
she pointed at him and said, “That’s the man you want to see,”

chorus

Today I got a call from my boss back down below
He said I was due back at work—or else!
But I worked all my life, and what have I got to show?
As of now, I haven’t even got my health

They put me on a cart and wheeled me to a room
where they strapped me to an old X-ray machine
everyone agreed that something must be done—and soon!
but they never told me what any of it means
chorus

There’s a girl here from Duluth, she cannot speak a word
She communicates through shapes made with her hands
Whenever she’s around, I feel a pounding in my nerves
I get dizzy, weak, and cannot seem to stand—

They listened to my heart, they opened up my veins
They looked inside my blood for some kind of sign
The nurse reported back that my heartbeat was just the rain
And it turns out my own blood ain’t even mine—

chorus

Yesterday I wrote a letter out on the lawn
“Dear Uncle,” it said, “Sorry I misspoke.
If you reading these words now, it means that I am gone
And no, I don’t mean, stepped out for a smoke.

I’ve been the child of privilege, known prosperity and wealth;
Please take my things and give them to the poor.
If you’d like to keep my books, please—go, and help yourself
Where I’m going—I won’t need them anymore”

Chorus

credits

from Wet Match, released October 13, 2019

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all rights reserved

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Sam Steffen Boise, Idaho

Sam Steffen is a Pennsylvania-bred, Boise-based singer-songwriter whose songs are the torch-wood for a new generation of folk music that has learned from the best stuff in the tradition and aims in spite of everything to keep the human spirit alive and kicking. A versatile musician and skilled finger-picker, Sam is at heart a story-teller, and a prolific one. ... more

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