Down by Okkervil River slow silent thick and black
I stared into the water and the water it stared back
The night it fell from tangles of the branches on the shore
As it had on Okkervil River before
Down by Okkervil River's cigarettes and rusty tires
We made ourselves an altar, we lit our nightly fires
And the smoke lay thick and smothered, all the skunk cabbage and vines
Where Gods were born and Gods lay down to die
With your hand inside my pocket, you whispered in my ear
"We've come from ugliness to find some refuge here
With this bracken for a blanket, where these limbs stick out like bones
We have found a place where we can be alone." Oh
And I tried to tell you as I kissed your hard dry lips
All the things I dreamed about, I touched your bone white hips
Far away our parents slept in as we watched our fire burn
They dreamed of nothing and got nothing in return
And the water slipped on slowly past our bodies in the weeds
Pulling plastic wrap and razors on its current through the reeds
Then I woke up one cold morning, felt an absence at my back
And I searched and stared but only the river stared back
And I searched and stared but only the river stared back
And I searched and stared but only the river stared back
