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Leviathan

from Prodigal by David Wirsig

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lyrics

ever since I can remember it has lived within
it waited and it slumbered, waited and it slumbered
one day you awakened the leviathan
it wasn't much longer till it began to hunger

some kind of cosmic wager from the devil to God
and I was in the middle, I was in the middle
they pushed it down inside me so I'll never resolve
the answer to this riddle, answer to this riddle

how it hangs on me
haunting every step that I take
like a big brother
whose shadow you could never escape
or your drunk stepfather
you didn't measure up in his eyes
he laid his hands upon you
now go your way and do likewise

so I drowned it in the ocean depths
it just came back stronger
so I tried to smother it
beneath my sheets and comforters
scared it would take control
if I don't extinguish it
but there's days I think I'd feel that way no matter what I did

first time that I hit you I just lost control
your final shred of refuge drained away and left you
trembling there in front of me, completely exposed
to the blackest of intention, past all intervention

I gazed into your eyes and saw your motives and plans
hiding just behind the levee, just behind the levee
I knew that if I gave you even half of a chance
that one day when you're ready, like dead skin you would shed me

move onto something better
a house with a two car garage
just leave me spinning downward;
the bullet that you narrowly dodged
can't let you have that power
you'd only screw it up anyway
if you have no rudder
you'll do whatever I say

and we'll go on this way eternally
inside our private hell
and I'll siphon pieces of you off
till you're an empty shell
I've thrown it scraps for years
to sate its appetite
but this snarling beast that lives in me demands a sacrifice

so you've been wandering the streets for days
well that's just fine with me
I'm only thinking of that moment when you finally
come home and find me swaying here
beneath your tightened rope
and I swear I hear some creature laughing there behind us both

credits

from Prodigal, released October 2, 2020
Piano performed by Libby O'Neil

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about

David Wirsig New Haven, Connecticut

Over the past ten years, David Wirsig has built a library of releases exploring themes such as religious dogma, life after the apocalypse, and what lies at the bottom of the ocean. His songs have been featured on multiple podcasts and radio programs, including "Welcome to Night Vale" and CBC Radio. ... more

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