The Giant of Illinois The Handsome Family

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