Mary Is Mary

We left a 'maybe' for the cold hard

(Something that had been rumored became reality)

And they found a body in my backyard

(The corpse that you planted last year in your garden, has it begun to sprout, or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? O keep the dog far hence, that's friend to man, or with his nails he'll dig it up again!)

And leave for the country just like you did

(Gentrification)

But he's not in the country, just look how you live

(Suburbanization)

And O high and mighty, what do you know?

(O God. O God. Oh god oh god oh god yes.)

And there is no great eye on the sparrow

(c.f. the old Gospel hymn His Eye is on the Sparrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Eye_Is_on_the_Sparrow)

And Mary is Mary and I am not

(Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee)

But what, what good does she have that I haven't got?

(Hail Mary, full of death, sing me a bitter song)

And one head is lesser than the two heads

(One is the loneliest number)

But we know the facts that go unsaid

(Two can be as sad as one)

And I'm left alone in my own home Where all that I own is not my own

(It's the loneliest number since the number one)

And O sleeping giant, why do you rest Behind the eyes of who I love the best

(Why do people's religions have to get in the way)

And is there another where you do keep The pain of another where my own sleep

(Or maybe the song is about religious faith as metaphor for sexual fidelity, who knows)

And O high and mighty, what is your guess? Can we learn to live with so much less?

(I really wanted this lyric to be "so much loss", but it's not.)

And you say that we end where we all go

("To Hell, I guess.")

But O high and mighty, what do you know?

(Oh Lord. Amen.)