The Owl And The Tanager - Sufjan Stevens

All I had hoped for

I kept inside your car

The rabbit in the barn

Most of all I wait

I wait beside the door;

I wait beside the door

All I was wrong trembling in the cage

I was diamonds in the cage

In seven hours I consider death

And your father called to yell at me You little boy, you little boy

Found out you cheated me I ran behind the barn and cut my hands somehow

Blood in the meadowlark

I punched your ears instead

I punched you in the head

You only laughed and laughed and laughed

How I was wrong tingling from the kill

Tickle me until you devil bird you evil still

Slept on my arms, sleeping in the sill

I was sleeping in the room with you

You little boy, you little boy

How could you run from me now?

The loneliest chime in the house

The loneliest chime in the house

You let it out you let it out

Come to me Calvary still

I’m weeding and raking until

I’m bleeding in spite of my love for you

It bruised and bruised my will

Counting alluvial plains

The breathing inside of the range

You touched me inside of my cage

Beneath my shirt your hands embraced me Come to me feathered and frayed

For I am the ugliest prey,

For I am the ugliest prey

The owl, the reckless reckless praise.

You said you’d wait for me Down by Tannery Creek

Far out by the clothesline where we used to kiss behind the sheets

Wrapped in a blanket of red

The Owl and the Tanager said

The Owl and the Tanager said

One waits until the hour is death