Okkervil River
We Need a Myth
[Verse 1]
We need a myth
We need an amethyst bridge
We need a high hanging cliff
Jump, fall and lift, we can make it

[Verse 2]
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

[Chorus]
A myth
Guess what we're after is just this
A myth
Guess what we're after is just this

[Verse 3]
We need a myth
I feel my heart's like a fist
Words spilling out of the blessed lips
Of any prophet or goddess

[Verse 4]
I need a myth
Brought back to life by a kiss
Scrape away grey cement
Show me the world as it was again
[Verse 5]
As it was in a myth
Red ribbon to reconnect
The lady's head to her neck
And to forget that her throat was ever slit

[Chorus]
Guess what we're after is just this
It's a myth
Guess what we're after is just this

[Verse 6]
And I'm sick of all the picture books that try
To steal some old reflection for their light
But desperate measures point to desperate times
And that's why
We need a myth

[Verse 7]
We're cut adrift
And we need a massive uplift
The world is trembling and weeping
Just at the point of believing

[Verse 8]
In a myth
The sun that shines on my head
The moon that lights me to bed
Were two identical twins
[Verse 9]
Inside of a myth
I heard the voice of a friend
On Lethe's banks, wading in
And he said, "Well, before I forget"

[Verse 10]
We need a myth
As we lean in to kiss
To get two nails through the wrist
To get covered in blood, to get covered in spit
And to forgive

[Verse 11]
And if all we're taught is a trick
Why would this feeling persist?
And with the truth closing in
I must insist

[Outro]
We need a myth