Stephin Merritt - The Story of the Mother lyrics

"Although my child has died
" the mother said
"That doesn't make him permanently dead
I must petition Death for his return"

She made her way into the lands below
There was a rosebush there
Where things don't grow it said
"You want your child? Give me your blood"

And on a thorn her flesh was torn
That's how rosebushes grow down there
So then she met this great big centipede
Who wanted something from her, it decreed
"You want to hold your child?
Give me your arms"

In lands beneath they grow strange teeth
To tear your flesh more painfully

But on she staggered and stumbled


For her baby's sake
And found herself beside a talking lake
"You want to see your child?
Give me your eyes"

Which turned to pearls and sank in swirls
Into liquid oblivion

In the form of a spider
Death hung there beside her and kissed her
And made her his wife