The giant of Illinois
Died from a blister on his toe
After walking all day through the first winter's snow
Throwing bits of stale bread to the last speckled doves
He never even felt his shoe full of blood
Delirious with pain, his bedroom walls began to glow
And he felt himself soaring up through falling snow
And the sky was a woman's arms
The sky was a woman's arms
A boy with a club foot
Had sat next to him in school
Once upon a summer's day they went wandering through the woods
They spotted a sleeping swan
On the banks of a muddy stream
And they stormed it with rock still it collapsed in the reeds
They lay out on a green lawn full of chocolate and lemonade
But under the blue bowl the giant was afraid
Because the sky was a woman's arms
The sky was a woman's arms
Died from a blister on his toe
After walking all day through the first winter's snow
Throwing bits of stale bread to the last speckled doves
He never even felt his shoe full of blood
Delirious with pain, his bedroom walls began to glow
And he felt himself soaring up through falling snow
And the sky was a woman's arms
The sky was a woman's arms
A boy with a club foot
Had sat next to him in school
Once upon a summer's day they went wandering through the woods
They spotted a sleeping swan
On the banks of a muddy stream
And they stormed it with rock still it collapsed in the reeds
They lay out on a green lawn full of chocolate and lemonade
But under the blue bowl the giant was afraid
Because the sky was a woman's arms
The sky was a woman's arms
Lyrics submitted by leonperkin
"The Giant of Illinois" as written by Rennie S Sparks Brett Sparks
Lyrics © MUSIC OF VIRTUAL, Songtrust Ave
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Aside from the literal connection to Robert Wadlow... the song strikes me as poetic in a way that I don't think I've experienced before.
The first verse, a man so engrossed in his care for the lowest of birds (pigeons) that he does not even tend to his own pain. A penance of sorts. Dies in his duty, comforted so very deeply in the end by the eternal, who like a mother forgives him his sin.
The second verse, a child, who meets a friend who leads him astray to commit a deep sin, to kill the most beautiful of birds. And even though they could have lived in indulgence after that, the child realizes what he did was wrong, but in realizing this, the eternal, who like a mother, comforts him and gives him his duty (to right his wrong).
What I love about the song is how the first verse is actually the chronological future, and the second is the past, and how it just all ties in so nicely and so beautifully and sadly. And how much pain you feel for the swan. And how sometimes you live with something wrong you did for the rest of your life. But that there is a comfort that it can somehow be righted.