Lyrics We Need a Myth - Okkervil River

We Need a Myth

We need a myth
We need an amethyst bridge
We need a high hanging cliff
Jump, fall and lift
We can make it
But we need a myth
We need a path through the mist
Like in our beds, we were just kids
Like what was said by our parents
A myth
Guess what we’re after is just this
A myth
Guess what we’re after is just this
We need a myth
I feel my heart’s like a fist
Words spilling out of the blessed lips
Of any prophet or goddess
I need a myth
Brought back to life by a kiss
Scrape away grey cement
Show me the world as it was again
As it was in a myth
A red ribbon to reconnect
The lady’s head to her neck
And to forget that her throat was ever slit
Guess what we’re after is just this
It’s a myth
Guess what we’re after is just this
And I’m sick of all these picture books that try
To steal some old reflections for their light
But desperate measures point to desperate times
And that’s why
We need a myth
We’re cut adrift
We need a mass uplift
The world is trembling and weeping
Just at the point of believing
In a myth
The sun that shines on my head
The moon that lights me to bed
Were two identical twins
Inside of a myth
I heard the voice of a friend
On Lethe’s banks, wading in
And he said, «Before I forget»
We need a myth
As we lean in to kiss
To get two nails through the wrist
To get covered in blood
And to get covered in spit
And to forgive
And if all we’re taught is a trick
Why would this feeling persist?
And with the truth closing in
I must insist
We need a myth