Avalanche

Nick Cave and the bad seeds

I stepped into an avalanche



It covered up my soul
 When I am not this hunchback that you see
 I sleep beneath the golden hill
 You who wish to conquer pain
 You must learn to serve me well

You strike my side by accident
 As you go down to your goal
 This cripple here that you clothe and feed
 Is neither starved nor cold
 He does not ask for your company
 Not at the centre, the centre of the world

I who am on a pedestal
 You did not raise me there
 Your laws do not compel me now
 To kneel grotesque and bare
 For I myself am the pedestal
 For this ugly hump at which you stare

You who wish to conquer pain
 You must learn what makes me kind
 The crumbs of love that you offer me
 Are the crumbs I've left behind
 Your pain is no credential here
 It's just a shadow of my wound

I have begun to ask for you
 I who have no greed
 I have begun to long for you
 I who have no need
 You say you've gone away from me
 But I can feel you when you breathe

Do not dress in those rags for me
 I know you are not poor
 And do not love me quite so fiercely now
 When you know that you are not sure
 It is your turn, my beloved one
 It is your flesh that I wear