Mimi Speaks Lyrics - Jane Siberry

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 

You don't know me but I've been watching 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 

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 

First of all, my name isn't Mimi 

It's Ruth, Ruth Mimadoni Castradicus Phaterpithecus Triumvatini 

And I come from a family of ten children 

A tomboy, the youngest, I learned to fight before I learned to walk 

To fight for my place in a space without grace 

All cannons open by the age of two 

By six I ruled the schoolyard, by fourteen, I ruled the shopping malls 

Loud, active, restless, arrogant, aggressive and strong 

I couldn't understand these flimsy things called teenage girls 

They scattered before me like ineffective dolls 

So 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 

Trying to whip her into three dimensions 

She was shaking and looking confused 

Way beyond her ken 

I was just about to give her one last kick 

When all of a sudden, she got real silent, I mean, real silent 

And from somewhere faraway, someone called my name 

Ruth Mimadoni Castradicus Phaterpithecus Triumvatini 

And a pink surfboard was handed to me 

And a voice said, "Her name will be Mimi" 

And they gently urged me forward to the edge of the water 

And we moved out onto the sea, Mimi and me 

And the language between us was wordless and hung in the air 

And I spent a lot of time thinking about chains 

That bound the others but not me 

And then I started to feel so trapped by feeling, oh, so free 

And some days I hated the pink, I hated the pink 

Pink for weakness and girls and little posies 

Pink for subjugation, oppression, asexuality, moral shrivenness 

Ignorance and painted toesies 

And yet, it's pink that is my friend out here 

Out on the sea that I'm learning to fear 

Pink that's showing me the way 

Learning how to not have my say 

To hear what you might have to say 

Stand up, Mimi, stand up 

And so you're saying 'stand up' to a natural athlete 

It's much harder for me 

To sit here feeling, oh, so incomplete 

Something strange occurred 

On the local beach that day 

One girl paddled out to sea 

The other slowly walked away