Okkervil River Song Lyrics

Down by Okkervil River
Slow silent thick and black,
I stared into the water,
And the water it stared back.
The night it fell from tangles
Of the branches on the shore
As it had on Okkervil River before.

Down by Okkervil River's
Cigarettes and rusty tires,
We made ourselves an altar,
We lit our nightly fires.

And the smoke lay thick and smothered
All the skunk cabbage and vines
Where Gods were born and Gods lay down to die.
With your hand inside my pocket,
You whispered in my ear:
"We have come from ugliness
To find some refuge here.
With this bracken for a blanket,
Where these limbs stick out like bones,
We have found a place where we can be alone."

And I tried to tell you,
As I kissed your hard dry lips,
All the things I dreamed about,
I touched your bone white hips.
Far away our parents slept
In while we watched our fire burn.
They dreamed of nothing
And got nothing in return.
And the water slipped on
Slowly past our bodies in the weeds,
pulling plastic wrap and razors
on its current through the reeds.
Then I woke up one cold morning,
Felt an absence at my back,
And I searched and stared but only the river stared back.