Rainbow Trout - Matt Kivel

Thinnest lips, blue and white

With the scent of Demerol above

It would stink, it would cry

Touching all extremities with lice

Oh, sweet babe

Don’t cry

Oh, sweet babe

Don’t cry

An apartment, electric bulb

Passing down the Technicolor boats

On the TV, on the show

In the hall of ugliness and love

She would see it, comin out

While she cooked the rainbow trout

Forced its head down to the flame

Pushed its eyelids up against its brain

Oh it’s quiet

Sing to sleep tonight

Hush, so quiet

You I love, you I love

Oh, sweet babe

Don’t cry

Oh, sweet babe

Don’t cry

As the body shook with pain

It was thrown again and again

Up against the fissured wall

Covered in the bile of its maw

Stung with insects, real and feigned

It absorbed the scent from all its stain

She would look down, blue and white

Crush its head beneath the carving knife

Oh it’s quiet

Sing to sleep tonight

Hush, so quiet

You I love, you I love