Fourth of July
by Sufjan Stevenson Carrie & Lowell (10th Anniversary Edition)This song is a conversation between Sufjan and his mother, Carrie, while she was dying in the hospital. Each stanza alternates between them.
Sufjan spoke of this time in an interview:
She had stomach… Read More [Verse 1]
The evil, it spread like a fever ahead
It was night when you died, my firefly
What could I have said to raise you from the dead?
Oh, could I be the sky on the Fourth of July?
[Chorus 1]
"Well, you do enough talk
My little hawk, why do you cry?
Tell me, what did you learn from the Tillamook burn?
Or the Fourth of July?
We're all gonna die"
[Verse 2]
Sitting at the bed with the halo at your head
Was it all a disguise, like junior high?
Where everything was fiction, future, and prediction
Now, where am I? My fading supply
[Chorus 2]
"Did you get enough love, my little dove?
Why do you cry?
And I'm sorry I left, but it was for the best
Though it never felt right
My little Versailles"
[Verse 3]
The hospital asked, "Should the body be cast?"
Before I say goodbye, my star in the sky
Such a funny thought to wrap you up in cloth
Do you find it all right, my dragonfly?
[Chorus 3]
"Shall we look at the moon, my little loon?
Why do you cry?
Make the most of your life, while it is rife
While it is light
Well, you do enough talk
My little hawk, why do you cry?
Tell me, what did you learn from the Tillamook burn?
Or the Fourth of July?
We're all gonna die"
[Outro]
We're all gonna die
We're all gonna die
We're all gonna die
We're all gonna die
We're all gonna die
We're all gonna die
We're all gonna die