Song Meaning
The lyrics paint a stark, almost primal image of insatiable desire, beginning with a 'baby god' crying out for sustenance. This initial plea for a 'mother's dug' is immediately met with a harsh, unforgiving landscape. The 'dry volcanoes cracked and spit,' and 'sand abraded the milkless lip,' suggesting a fundamental lack of nourishment and a world actively resisting the infant's needs. This sets a tone of profound, unmet longing from the very outset.
The narrative then pivots to a different kind of demand: a cry for 'father's blood.' This shift introduces a darker, more aggressive form of wanting, where the father figure is depicted as a cruel engineer of predatory creatures. The 'wasp, wolf and shark' and the 'gannet's beak' are all instruments of violence, implying that the father's response to desire is to unleash destruction. This creates a central tension between the passive, vulnerable need of the infant and the active, brutal provision of the father.
The final stanza introduces the 'inveterate patriarch,' who is 'dry-eyed' and commands 'men of skin and bone.' This figure seems to represent a hardened, unfeeling authority, whose gifts are not sustenance but instruments of pain and control. The 'barbs on the crown' and 'thorns on the bloody rose-stem' are potent images of suffering disguised as beauty or power. The lyrics suggest that this patriarch's 'provision' is inherently damaging, a twisted form of fulfillment that inflicts wounds.
What makes these lyrics so potent is their unflinching portrayal of desire as a force that is met not with care, but with harshness and violence. The imagery moves from the elemental need for milk to the brutal imposition of pain, highlighting a cycle of wanting that is perpetually, cruelly unsatisfied. The stark contrasts between the vulnerable 'baby god' and the destructive 'patriarch' underscore a profound sense of cosmic indifference or even malice towards fundamental needs.
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