Lyrics The Belly and the Beast - Anaïs Mitchell

The Belly and the Beast

I in my longing lie out in the night
Unveiled and irreverently dressed
I’m lip-stuck and liquored up Picking a fight
I’m the wicked wicked witch of the west
Over the alley ways, backward and blind
And the sad and insatiable sprawl
Over the market place darkly defined
His desert is sounding a call
He was a businessman twenty five years
When the angel appeared with his orders
I am making you mine, my divine volunteer
And I’m flying you over the border
And he can’t recall where it all fell apart
Was it north of Medina or south
Where the prophecy ends and the politics start
Where the weapon went into his mouth
And everyone’s sleeping
And he’s flying
Out
And no one can keep him
Down
Now
The morning delivers the news to my door
Of my president’s war in the east
And he doesn’t tell me and I don’t know
Who’s in the belly and who is the beast
When there’s no place to run to When there’s no place to hide
It won’t matter whose side you are on Like a bomb in the basement
We couldn’t stop if we tried
And it won’t be long
It won’t be long
It won’t be long