According to Mike Almquist (the band’s manager), this is a song Rickie (the drummer) wrote and brought to the band. It is not surprising as this song is a great drum song. That opening drum beat that gets repeated is so great. I love the tom hits at the ends of the first halves of the verses, like on “meet”, and the transition to a different beat mid-verse. Speaking of transitions in the middles of sections, the second halves of the choruses are bigger with added backing vocals. The second chorus specifically features either an Ebow or some other ambient guitar effect after the word “denied” that builds up to the second half of the chorus.

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It’s the smell of hot summertime trash
It’s the city noise of a busy street
It’s a train derailed and a two car head-on freeway crash
Each time we meet
“And if it comes as some sort of a surprise”, she said
“That I seem so composed
I’ve kept this moment closer to my eyes”, she said
“Than the glasses resting on the edge of my nose”

Two people are coming together and their meeting is not only unpleasant but calamitous. This album contains several images of two things coming together, like the dryness and the rain in the previous track, the wind chime analogy in “In A Market Dimly Lit”, and the notes/harmony bit in “O, Porcupine”.

This fated meeting is with a woman who has been expecting him and seems to have the upper hand.

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Shadow am I!
Shadow am I!
A question of a person, no said reply
Wolf am I!
Wolf and Shadow cast on the sheep as I pass by
Shadow am I!
Shadow am I!
Or like a
Wearing-black-socks-and-white-woolen-locks
Wolf am I, and shadow

When he goes to meet her, he sees himself as a wolf and a shadow. Being a wolf would mean he’s out to prey on the other sheep. He’s also a shadow. In psychoanalysis, the shadow personality is the opposite of the persona, the public-facing personality. The shadow is home to all of the repressed parts of a personality someone doesn’t want to see about themself. So he has bad intentions both inside and out.

He’s also wearing black socks and white woolen locks, so he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This is a reference to Matthew 7:15: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (This verse is immediately followed by “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”, which we will return to in “O, Porcupine”.)

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She was graceful and green as a stem
But I walk heavy on delicate ground
Oh there, I go showing off again
Self-impressed by how well I can put myself down!
And there I go again, to the next further removed level
Of that same exact feigned humility!
This for me goes on and on to the point of nausea

“Graceful and green as a stem” is a reference to “Sisters of Mercy” by Leonard Cohen:
“If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn
They will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem”

He’s coming into contact with this woman. He must go over delicate ground to be near her, but he walks heavily. Who is this woman he’s meeting? My guess is that the meeting is with the divine feminine. My justification is as follows:
1. He’s among sheep, or followers of Christ.
2. The woman he’s meeting in the first verse is waiting for him.
3. Not all encounters with the divine end well, especially if you’re not ready or worthy (like a wolf in sheep’s clothing). Though not directly referenced in the song, this interpretation brings to mind the parable of the wedding feast: a man comes to the wedding feast a king is throwing for his son, but is bound hand and foot and thrown into outer darkness for not wearing the correct wedding attire.

Then he gets caught in his mind by self-judgment (superego behavior in psychological terms), which the mind can keep repeating forever from continually higher points of judgment if left unchecked.

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Shadow am I!
Like a suspicion that’s never confirmed
But it’s never denied
Wolf am I
No, “shadow”, I think is better
As I’m not so much something
More like the absence of something
So shadow am I!
The whole material world seems to me
Like a newspaper headline-
It explicitly demands your attention
And it may even contain some truth
Of what’s really going on here

In the first chorus, he’s both a wolf and a shadow. In this chorus, he’s battling between identifying as the shadow or the wolf. People often keep themselves blissfully unaware of their shadow personality (a suspicion neither confirmed nor denied). He settles on being the shadow “as I’m not so much something / more like the absence of something” (which brings to mind “I do not exist” from “Messes of Men”, but in an egotistical and not transcendental sense).

Across most spiritual traditions, followers are not supposed to get caught up in the material world. However, he keeps getting caught up in it because everything he sees is catchy like a newspaper headline meant to draw his attention. And though he’s not supposed to get caught up in it, it might actually contain some truth.

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One day the water’s gonna wash it away
One day the water’s gonna wash it away
One day the water’s gonna wash it away
And on that day
One day the water’s gonna wash it away
One day the water’s gonna wash it away
Nothin’ clever to say
One day, nothin’ else to say

This song has been about frustration with his current state (wolf/shadow). However, he believes that God will relieve him of the sinful aspects of his personality in the future (one day the water’s gonna wash it away).