Lyric discussion by persimmon 

Cover art for My Shepherd lyrics by New Pornographers, The

Carl said on his Rolling Stone blog that this was inspired by a short story he read ("Crossbones," by Leonard Michaels) about a married couple who sort of simmer & don't do much of anything until the end, when they explode into violence ("Tripping wires we have so carefully crossed/ The science behind it at a perfect loss"). He also name-checked the movie Crazy Love.

Makes that chorus pretty damn creepy; hell, makes the whole song pretty damn creepy.