The Apple Tree

Hate is what you learn when your teacher cheats you When the one you trust is the snake that eats you Leaving nothing more than a skin of smiling wounds And hate is all we found when we woke in mourning Born into the fall with a dead sky dawning Twisted up inside from our mothers' poisoned wombs Daddy made a mess, but he could have saved us Ah, but no, his folly and greed betrayed us We who live in heaven will leave our children hell If hate is all I know, then my daddy taught me well Picture how it was in the growing thunder Traders in the pit screaming out their numbers Covering their ears till the roof went tumbling in And Jesus never came, but the dead kept rising Blossoms on the wind that you feared surviving Nothing to bequeath but the wages of your sin Once I was a boy, and my hope still shivered Fragile little faun not too long delivered Trembling in the ditch where the dead and dying dwell If hate is all I know, then my daddy taught me well Don't go near the apple tree I know it isn't meant for me For knowledge is a savage tool When carried in the hands of fools Our father blew a bitter breeze No apple in Hesperides Was spared his all-consuming lust We'll never know if heaven might have welcomed us So who shall be the snake in this broken Eden? Come to my embrace, and you'll soon be sleeping Join the lullaby of a million mourning bells If hate is all I know, then my daddy taught me well