10. The River
Written by Polly Jean Harvey
Musicians: Polly Jean Harvey, Mick Harvey, John Parish, Rob Ellis, Eric Drew Feldman, Jeremy Hogg, and Joe Gore
Trumpet: Terry Edwards

Found on:
Is This Desire?
A cover is on Closure by Spahn Ranch

This song was inspired by the short story "The River" (Flannery O'Connor)

Synopsis: A young boy tells an older woman that his mother is ill. She says that his mother will be saved if they go to a healing. At the healing, the boy is baptized and it's learned that his mothers only illness is alcohol. The next day, the boy manages to get to the river, where he attempts to reenact his baptism so he'll be accepted by god. As he's trying, someone knocks him into the water, where the "gentle hand of the river" pulls him downstream.

Allusions in the song:
-"They walked on the dirt road for awhile...."
-"...leave your pain in the river..."
-"It's a river full of pain itself... moving toward the Kingdom of Christ, to be washed away, slow."
-"...the slow circles of two silent birds revolving high in the air."
-"the pieces of the white sun scattered in the river."

and they came to the river
and they came from the road
and he wanted the sun
just to call his own
and they walked on the dirt
and they walked from the road
'til they came to the river
'til they came up close

Throw your pain in the river
To be washed away slow

and we walked without words
and we walked with our lives
two silent birds
circled by

Like our pain in the river

and we followed the river
and we followed the road
and we walked through this land
and we called it a home
but he wanted the sun
and I wanted the whole
and the white light scatters
and the sun sets low

Like the pain in the river