Okkervil River
A President’s Born
A president's born
A babe in new form
Dear friends and it's just so wonderful
They slap his behind and they pat down his head
Passing him to Elizabeth Christ and then Fred
The angels don't sing and the clouds they don't part
But imagine this feeling they feel in their hearts
It's just two human beings to his right and his left
And they've done this before
Still they feel that they're blessed
He's lying face-up in his first ever shit
On his lips, something half-like a smile and some spit
And they're glad that he's here
Cause they waited for him
Said it's just as sincere
As they might ever get
In the paper that week
Where the famous and rich
Get to launder their speech
There's a grey column-inch
Tell the world that he's here
One more billionaire's kid
In the same year as Tupperware and the UN
Now let's think about 74 years on from then
In a year over 200,000 are dead
And our beautiful boy
Something broke in his head
Who could possibly guess
What the damage quite is?
Was his father tyrannical or violent?
Did too much wealth and privilege
Pervert the poor kid?
Is he some psychic casualty
Capitalism unleashed on the planet
For poor or for rich?
Is he some final end to the whole toxic trip?
We've been taking for centuries
Since our paths split?
Some personified shadow externalised, writ
Even larger than life
Is he just some rich twit?
Let's imagine him making some big deal with death
Said "I'll give you my millions
I'll give you my kids
I'm not ready to go
And I'm warmly grasping"
But his eyes finally close
The last breath leaves his lips
And a wonderous white light's encircling him
It unravels his soul to the tiniest bits
And they flow through the water
And drift on the wind
And they fall with the rain
Brainless and innocent
There is emptiness then
And he's gone for a bit
And then something starts pulsing
Right down in the pit
And that something is shaped
And is graced and takes form
And a body is made
And her resident's born
The president's dead
The president's dead
The president's dead
Oh, the president's dead
The president's dead
And it's alright