By Jon Lober (Atlanta, GA), originally published in the first edition ofThe Phish Companion…

Reflections of life often surface in Phish songs like pieces of sky captured in water’s natural mirror. The loss of my girlfriend Mitzi was the still-life reflection of Bouncing Around the Room. At the University of Florida we bounced around the roomy confines of our relationship until one day she whispered words and I awoke to find that the woman was a dream I had, one I could not keep. As I tuned out the siren’s song she sang for me I saw the beautiful coral maze of our relationship was a prison. I realized we lived underwater in a hazy reality we created. Once I awoke from that dream, I could no longer sink beneath the sea of our troubles obscured by the crystal haze of our dream world. So the siren disappeared beneath the waves and, barely alive, I swam to the shore and recovered in the shallow waters of solitude. But even today, three years after we broke up, I can still hear the gentle echo of her beautiful voice bouncing around the roomy confines of my mind. I know she is happy and I know another man tends the beautiful coral maze of the siren Mitzi and this makes me smile.

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