Songtext We need a myth Okkervil River

We need a myth

We need a myth
We need an amethyst bridge
We need a high hanging cliff
Jump, fall and lift

We can make it
We need a myth
We need a path
Through the mist

Like in our beds
We were just kids
Like what was said by our parents
I guess

What we're after is just this
We need a myth
I feel my heart's like a fist
I want words spilling out

From the blessed lips
Of any prophet or goddess
I need a myth
Brought back to life by a kiss

Scrape away grey cement
Show me the world as it was again
In a myth
A red ribbon to reconnect

The lady's head to her neck
And to forget that her throat
Was ever slit
I guess

What we're after is just this
A myth
And I'm sick
Of all these picture books that try

To steal some old reflections for their light
But desperate measures point to desperate times
Which is why
We need a myth

We're cut adrift
We need a mass uplift
The world is trembling and weeping
And at the point of believing

In a myth
The sun that shines on my head
The moon that lights me to bed
Were two identical twins

In a myth
I heard the voice of a friend
On Lethe's banks
Wading in

He said
"Before I forget
We need a myth
As we lean in to kiss

To get two nails
Through the wrist
To get covered in blood
And to get covered in spit

And to forgive."

And if all we're taught is a trick
Why would this feeling persist?
And with the truth closing in
I must insist

We need a myth.