This week’s theme for Song Lyric Sunday is devil/demon.

That works out.

If you read my blog regularly… or have been reading for the past week especially, you know that I’m in a bad place. And I don’t mean my stupid house in my stupid town. I mean the stupid place in my stupid head. It feels sad and scary. It feels overwhelming and completely out of my control.

I often think my demons are who I am. I’m not sure there’s anything else. And there’s definitely no running from them… they are always there… screaming at me… tearing me down…

Do my crying underwater
I can’t get down any farther
All my drowning friends can see
Now there is no running from it
It’s become the crux of me
I wish that I could rise above it
… But I stay down
With my demons

I talk to myself… tell myself it’s not that bad. Sometimes, I even believe it. For a minute or two. Sometimes the start is at night… I’m okay when I go to sleep… but then I wake up and just as the sun should brighten things, it goes dark.

Oh, everyday I start so great
Then the sunlight dims
The less I look
The more I see the pythons in the limbs
Do not know what’s wrong with me
The sour is in the cut
When I walk into a room
I do not light it up
Fuck
…But I stay down
With my demons

My interpretation of this song is totally based on myself. I’m sure that was not intended as no members of The National know me personally. But it fits… maybe a little too well.

Demons | The National

When I think of you in the city
The sight of you among the sites
I get this sudden sinking feeling
Of a man about to fly
Never kept me up before
Now I’ve been awake for days
I can’t fight it anymore
I’m going through an awkward phase
I am secretly in love with
Everyone that I grew up with
Do my crying underwater
I can’t get down any farther
All my drowning friends can see
Now there is no running from it
It’s become the crux of me
I wish that I could rise above it

But I stay down
With my demons
But I stay down
With my demons

Buts and buzzards in the sky
Alligators in the sewers
I don’t even wonder why
Hide among the younger viewers
Huddle with them all night long
The worried talk to God goes on
I sincerely tried to love it
Wish that I could rise above it

But I stay down
With my demons
But I stay down
With my demons

Can I stay here? I can sleep, on the floor
Paint the blood and hang the palms, on the door
Do not think I’m going places anymore
Wanna see the sun come up above New York
Oh, everyday I start so great
Then the sunlight dims
The less I look
The more I see the pythons in the limbs
Do not know what’s wrong with me
The sour is in the cut
When I walk into a room
I do not light it up
Fuck

But I stay down
With my demons
But I stay down
With my demons

[Written by Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner | The National]

Obviously I am not the owner of any rights to this song, video, or lyrics… just everything else… ©2018 what sandra thinks