Josh Ritter – Theophany (Guitar)

      C                  Dm
I was new to the capital city so perhaps

F                             C
That's why I was chosen to be given the map

      C                       Dm
Or perhaps it was because the place where I worked

F                        C
Meant that I wasn't just some other jerk

       F                             Am
Either way though, there it was, one day after lunch

  Dm                  C
A map in an envelope, there with a bunch

   F                    Am
Of mail and other stuff there at my desk

        Dm                      G7
With my name in old cursive, no return address

    C                  Dm
The map of the capital city was clear

      F                            C
And a dot marked the spot whеre it said 'You Are Herе'

       C                     Dm
But an X marked another spot down a few blocks

     F                       C
So I got out my notebook and I took a walk

   F                            Am
Of course there was nothing for me to expect

      Dm                       C
But I write for the paper so I go where I'm led

         F                     Am
And this lead it'd led me to a boarded up space

         Dm                      G7
'Tween a convenience store and a foot massage place

        C                          Dm
With my pocketed notebook, my flashlight in my teeth

  F                           C
I stooped to the ground and I crawled underneath

    C                     Dm
And into the dark 'til it swallowed me up

          F                                 C
I crawled downwards and downwards towards I didn't know what

     F                      Am
'Til after what felt like a mile, maybe more

    Dm                      C
The ground opened up into a vast marble floor

      F                          Am
And a vast marble ceiling arched high and away

    Dm                       G7
Far up into shadow where the real world lay

    C                          Dm
And there in the middle of the vast marble floor

      F                     C
Was a thing unlike anything I'd seen before

  C                  Dm
A rotating spiraling mist made of lights

         F                            C
That had something like wings made of something like eyes

       F                        Am
And it knew I was there because how could it not

       Dm                C
And as it read my mind I tasted its thoughts

      F                      Am
And I felt every mask that I ever wore drop

      Dm                        G7
And I knew in that moment I was looking at God

    C                           Dm
But not the God I'd read about, or had been taught

    F                          C
Not some almighty, vengeful, beneficent God

     C                       Dm
This God had been humbled or diminished or both

    F                        C
And whatever it once was now tied to a post

       F                      Am
And as I read its mind or whatever it's called

   Dm                           C
It told me of how they'd locked it in the vault

       F                     Am
It had come from a place far over the waves

  Dm                          G7
Before that, a place that did not have a name

         C                Dm
But like bread into body, water to wine

           F                         C
There were those who could use it to turn wrong to right

        C                          Dm
So they used it for all the things God is used for

    F                     C
For Second Amendments and new holy wars

    F                          Am
And helping the strong so that they'll feed the weak

Dm                                    C
Protecting the mighty that they might shepherd the meek

         F                         Am
And when people get shot and folks say they care

          Dm                          G7
They need something to go through the thoughts and the prayers

    C                    Dm
And so they had used it, again and again

         F                   C
And with its moral authority each time they'd win

       C                      Dm
And in fear of escapes and in hopes just to keep

    F                          C
The God to themselves they had buried it deep

      F                             Am
Still they feared it less than just some common ghost

    Dm                       C
And whatever it once was now tied to a post

    F                         Am
And then came the letter, and then I arrived

        Dm                        G7
Looking down on the ground at the rope loosely tied

    C                             Dm
Oh, to have been trapped here for hundreds of years

F                   C
Fed on requests and watered with tears

C                              Dm
When like all wild things it deserved to be free

   F                          C
To live on its own, and maybe then so could we

   F                         Am
So light burned my face as I worked out the knot

        Dm                       C
And the wind from the howling of wings was so hot

       F                             Am
That I thought I might die, 'til the rope fell away

      Dm                      G7
And I fell to the ground, and that's where I stayed

        C                     Dm
When I awoke in the darkness, alive and alone

    F                             C
The God once possessed 'neath the city had flown

     C                           Dm
So I picked up my flashlight and left as I came

     F                              C
Back out on the street, it had started to rain