Natalie Merchant -- Ophelia

Thick As Thieves

Remember how it all began
The apple and the fall of man
The price we paid
So the people say

Down the path of shame and let us dare
To bite the hand that fed us
Fairy tale, the moral end
Wheel of fortune, never turns again
Never turns again

The worst of it has come and gone
In the chaos of millennium
And the falling out
Of the doomsday crowd
Their last retreat is moving slow
They burn their bridges as they go
The heretic is beautified
Teach the harlot's child to smile

Rocked again by indecision
Should we make that small incision
Testify, to the bleeding heart inside
We cut, we scratched
We ran, we slashed
And when he opened up at last
Found a cul-de-sac
Deep and black
Of smoke and ash
Deep and black
Smoke and ash

The wicked king In Parentis
Is kissing all his enemies
On the seventh day
On the seventh week
The tyrant's voice has softened now
But just for one forgiving hour
Before the rise of his
Iron fist again
Fist again

[music bridge]

I've come tonight
I've come to know
The way we are the way we'll go
And to measure this
The width of the wide abyss

I've come to you in restless sleep
Where all your dreams turned bitter sweet
With voodoo doll philosophies
Dayglo holy trinities
The wicked raft that leaves the shore
Ferries drunken souls aboard
Pilgrims march to Compostello
Visions of their saint in yellow

Follow deep in trance
Lost in a catatonic dance
Know no future
Damn the past
Blind, warm, ecstatic
To save their lives

[music bridge]