[Intro | 8-bit thunder roll, radio static, choir on a single ugly vowel] [Choir, hummed] Ah—ah—ah— the cloud has teeth. [Verse 1 | sung, low] The sky went black without a dusk The air began to hum A yellow wound tore through the dust And told me help had come I ran toward the only light A crown of living spark I didn’t hear the thunder bite I only felt the dark [Pre-Chorus | sung, rising] Don’t bless the bolt that finds you Don’t praise the bird that calls It only loves the beating blood Still climbing in your walls [Chorus | lead + storm choir] Zapdos, Zapdos Saint of the burning mile You wear a storm like Sunday clothes And smile a voltage smile Zapdos, Zapdos Mercy made of wire You teach the lost to lift their hands Then set those hands on fire [Verse 2 | sung] They find them standing in the field With hair like lifted thread Their mouths still open from a hymn The lightning never said The grass is glass for half a mile The fence-posts lean and black A little 8-bit hymn still ticks Inside a smoking back [Pre-Chorus] Don’t look too long into the crest Three sparks that learned to pray If you can taste your own last name You’re already the prey [Chorus] Zapdos, Zapdos Saint of the burning mile You wear a storm like Sunday clothes And smile a voltage smile Zapdos, Zapdos Mercy made of wire You teach the lost to lift their hands Then set those hands on fire [Verse 3 | sung, quieter] It doesn’t hunt across the ground It hunts the empty air It waits until you beg the sky And answers like a prayer It drinks the pulse before the flesh It files you with the rain It leaves a silhouette of ash To show the next one where you came [Bridge | choir sung] [Choir] A legendary bird, they wrote That rides the thunderhead They printed it in children’s books So no one thinks to dread [Lead, sung] That line was never written kind It wasn’t made to warn It was a hunting call in rhyme For anyone still warm [Chorus | bigger] Zapdos, Zapdos Yellow chapel, no way home You fold a body into light And wear it while you roam Zapdos, Zapdos Static learned a tune You leave the valley quieter And hungrier too soon [Final Chorus | lead + full choir] Zapdos, Zapdos Saint of the burning mile You wear a storm like Sunday clothes And smile a voltage smile Zapdos, Zapdos Say it if you dare The cloud bows down. The bird looks in. It already knows you’re there. [Outro | sung, thinning] [Lead] If the rain begins to carry A voice you almost know— [Choir] Don’t look up. Don’t look up. That’s how the current gets in. [Lead, fading] Zapdos… [Choir, last held note] …still hungry.
