We flew over the cascades    We were forced to behave while we sat    In rows like children    I crossed some standard state lines    And finally found myself    so far away from home    And even though New England    intrigued us, thrilled us,    Our bones were cold as sticks and stones    We flew over the cascades    Just to find ourselves in storms we've never known       The winds blew like a beast with wings    And yes, everything was blown so far away    And I fell down    I failed to cut its neck       Even after hours of waiting    There was no telling when the storm would find its way    The lands we tried to memorize    We're no longer wrapped in tepid shades of red    And through the night the storm held me down    And bit my neck and said it would be okay    I stared into the fury    And the beauty of its overwhelming strength       The winds blew like a beast with wings    And yes, everything was blown so far away    And I fell down    I failed to cut its neck       I saw a dim light    In the mouth of the beast    So I followed it in    It's too late to retreat    It swallowed me whole    And my flesh became meat    Oh I can't look back now    Because the beast is complete       We flew over the cascades    We were forced to behave