The Robber Bridegroom

Lyrics

[Intro]
(candle-and-cellar dread, plucked bass and a whispering choir)

[Verse 1]
He was handsome and he was wealthy and my father said "how fine,"
but something underneath my ribs kept whispering "don't sign."
"Come see the house in the forest, love, come learn the way to me" —
so I strewed the path with lentils and peas, and I went to see what I'd see.

[Chorus]
Trust the thing that stands your hair up, trust the cellar-cold of dread —
the oldest circuit in the body is the one that keeps you fed.
The house was still, the pot was hot, the bones were on the floor —
and the gut that begged me not to come is the gut that found the door.

[Verse 2]
I hid behind a barrel as they dragged a poor girl in,
and a ring rolled loose from a severed hand and landed on my skin.
I pocketed the proof and I fled through the lentil-and-pea-marked night,
and I smiled at my bridegroom the next bright day like nothing was ever not right.

[Bridge]
(cold and clear)
At the wedding feast I said, "let me tell you a dream I had" —
and I laid the ring on the banquet cloth, and the whole hall understood the bad.

[Outro]
They took him out to the gallows tree and I never looked away...
the quiet warning under your skin is the truest thing you'll obey.