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Present Perfect (An Epithalamium) Lyrics
Like blood to bruise
Your clothes clung close to you
And hair grown back
To hues of curls you've kept from view
And my (?)
Alas that I saw you
As much as each of us
We just assumed you knew
We knew
We do
We do, oh
We do
We do, oh
We fucked through your room
Which traipse and turn through you
Retrace those restless days,
Now placed amongst the pews
And all as we once
When I last laid hands on you
Your touch left most of us
With tails and tongues removed
And we knew
So speaks the priest of less reprieves
And each forever holds his peace
You stumbled once on vows of trust
But don't worry kid
Your secret's safe with us
Oh
Oh
Oh
Oh
How we all salivate when the bells ring
How we all salivate when the bells ring
Oh
Oh
Oh
Oh
And we all salivate when the bells ring
And we all salivate when the bells ring
Still we all salivate when the bells ring
And we all salivate when the bells ring
Oh
Oh
Oh
Oh
Oh
Oh
Oh
Oh
Still we all salivate when the bells ring
Still we all salivate when the bells ring
Your clothes clung close to you
And hair grown back
To hues of curls you've kept from view
Alas that I saw you
As much as each of us
We just assumed you knew
We do
We do, oh
We do
We do, oh
Which traipse and turn through you
Retrace those restless days,
Now placed amongst the pews
And all as we once
When I last laid hands on you
Your touch left most of us
With tails and tongues removed
And each forever holds his peace
You stumbled once on vows of trust
But don't worry kid
Your secret's safe with us
Oh
Oh
Oh
How we all salivate when the bells ring
Oh
Oh
Oh
And we all salivate when the bells ring
Still we all salivate when the bells ring
And we all salivate when the bells ring
Oh
Oh
Oh
Oh
Oh
Oh
Still we all salivate when the bells ring
Song Info
Submitted by
cardigansweater On Sep 17, 2010
More Parenthetical Girls
Love Connection, Pt. II
Forward to Forget
I Was the Dancer
This Regrettable End
The Weight She Fell Under
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The line "we all salivate when the bells ring" may well be a reference to Pavlov's dogs and classical conditioning; in the context of a wedding song "written for the bride on the way to her marriage chamber" (Wikipedia), this could show how those who are aware of this woman's past ("retrace those restless days now placed amongst the pews" — past sexual partners sitting and watching her wedding, with this further reinforced by the line "I saw you as much of each of us" and the reply "we just assumed you knew") are going along with the formalities ("each forever holds his peace") and are perhaps not only making a fuss of her on her wedding day but lusting after her again (salivating) as they once did, having looked back on those times ("we fucked through your room", which when combined with the line about retracing may imply that our protagonist intercepted the bride at some point before or after the wedding to remember his past relationship/encounter with her).
@tfs21 A great interpretation-- before I knew that it was a wedding poem I had guessed it was maybe about complicated childhood sexual dynamics in a church, so thanks. I'd say, an interesting alternative interpretation is you assumed that the poem is directed at the bride, but it could equally, and perhaps more interestingly, be directed at the groom. Hard to say, as tho some of their songs are overtly queer, most of them do seem to be centred on heterosexual dynamics, and particularly the positionality of women within those.
@tfs21 A great interpretation-- before I knew that it was a wedding poem I had guessed it was maybe about complicated childhood sexual dynamics in a church, so thanks. I'd say, an interesting alternative interpretation is you assumed that the poem is directed at the bride, but it could equally, and perhaps more interestingly, be directed at the groom. Hard to say, as tho some of their songs are overtly queer, most of them do seem to be centred on heterosexual dynamics, and particularly the positionality of women within those.