Nick Cave, The Bad Seeds - Lightning Bolts lyrics

Two lightning bolts were delivered to my room
They were gifts from Zeus
I rock the bolts in a bassinet of pine

People ask me how I am
I say I’m all right, I’m fine

I push the lightning bolts in a pram
Till the sun goes down and it gets dark
And the girls from Jubilee Street hang out their windows
And they wave and ask me how I am tonight
I say I’m good, I’m all right

In Athens all the youths are crying from the gas
I’m by the hotel pool working on a tan
People come up and ask me who I am
I say if you don’t know, don’t ask

Zeus laughs – but it’s the gas
And he asks me how I am
I say Zeus, don’t ask

My lightning bolts are jolts of joy
They are joy boys from Zeus
I feed them porridge in their booster seats of knowledge
And in the cradle of democracy, the pigeons are wearing gas masks

My lightning bolts play in the elevators
They slide down the hotel banister
And Zeus throws a gas canister
And it spins around the pool
As pigeons wearing respirators steal the lightning bolts
Zeus wants them back

O my bolts of joy
O my darling little boys
They are lost to us
And people
They are never coming back

At night I watch them sleep
And cry years of tears
And it’s not the gas

People ask me how we are
We are, I say, mostly lost