The Handsome Family The Giant of Illinois song lyrics

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 rocks till 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