Sufjan Stevens - Wallowa Lake Monster lyrics

[Verse 1] As if you know the story of Wallowa Lake Leviathan first hid in the deep where her children sleep She kept them hidden from the plague But have you heard the story of my mother’s fate? She left us in Detroit in the rain with a pillowcase Fortune for the paperweight [Verse 2] We followed her to Joseph, near the Indian raid She wept among the weeds, hide and seek, for the fallen chief Spathiphyllum on his grave And like the cedar waxwing, she was drunk all day We put her in the sheet, little wreath, candles on the crate As the monster showed its face [Chorus 1] As she waits for her children in the shade Demogorgon or demigod the ghost parade No oblation will bring her back to our place [Verse 3] She stayed within the deep end of Wallowa Lake The undertow refrained with the flame of a feathered snake Charybdis in its shallow grave She gave us one last feature, the fullness of her face In the shade of "Hin-mah-too-yah…" (Red Napoleon) As the demon took her place [Chorus 2] As we wait for the waters to reside Her remarkable stoicism and her pride When the dragon submerged we knew she had died