#Hozier alone with you lyrics skin#

Instead of being in a hell that will soon be ameliorated, he is uncertain what he should do ('I don't know what else'). Instead of being kissed, he is now 'try' to kiss her. The differences between this verse and the previous iteration are huge. Than feel your weight in arms I'd never use,

#Hozier alone with you lyrics skin#

Than try to kiss the skin that crawls from you, (I err towards with, but I like the pall of doubt the absence grants the line.)īut I don't know what else that I would do, It could be read as him acknowledging that he needs to run away from or with his lover and child. This while voicing a desire to find a place or time when neither of them will need to run away anymore.Īnother little ambiguity: There's no conjunction between the last two lines of this verse. Positing them both escaping together offers her another escape, as well as allowing him to continue to share something (their need to escape) with her while she's escaping him (by getting high). Hence, he points out that they both 'hate' and need to escape 'this place'. He concludes that in spite of sex being available, she clearly needs another escape, because she just used one. Now consider the proposed equivalence between sex and drugs: They are both methods of escaping unpleasant realities.

Consider how the song begins: Voicing a desire for escapism. He says, 'I know that you hate this place'. Our baby and her momma and the damaged love she makes. There's a nice bit of punning if one presumes this interpretation: Instead of having him hold her, she is 'hold herself' by taking drugs, and gaining the pleasure that physical interaction could bring alone instead of with him. 'See the way you hold yourself,/Reel against your body's borders' can be taken here to indicate she's used much more than she'd need to just hold herself, she is reeling. 'The worst', the sickness, is over when she uses. He doesn't ask what she's doing, or why, as she's getting and using drugs.

My understanding is that's still an uncomfortable state, but it at least keeps them from vomiting all over the floor and lets them function. Now, when an addict says they need enough opiates to 'hold' them, what they mean is that they intend to use enough to keep the physical sickness away, but not enough to be high. In this reading, one of the two lovers is a heroin addict. Having sex and using heroin are being set up as parallel, possibly even equivalent, experiences. While high, one tends to feel lethargic, satiated, and disinclined to move ('arms I'd never use'), a heroin user also quite literally feels like one's limbs are heavy while high ('to feel your weight'). The 'kiss' here would be the act of using the drug. After orgasm, one tends to feel lethargic, satiated, and disinclined to do much other than hold one's partner ('your weight in arms I'd never use').įor a heroin addict, waiting too long between indulgences produces emotional turmoil, intense cravings, and a good deal of physical discomfort, including skin that quite literally feels like it's crawling off of one's body ('hell', 'skin that crawls'). The 'kiss' is likely a euphemism for the release of intercourse. While having sex, if foreplay and teasing are protracted, the desire for consummation can become intense enough to produce actual, physical pain ('hell', 'skin that crawls from you', reading 'from' as 'because of'). To feel your weight in arms I'd never use, To have someone kiss the skin that crawls from you, You don't know what hell you put me through, While he's with his lover, the exposing light of the world is darkened, his eyes are kissed, and he doesn't have to see the lewd and cruel actions of his fellow man any longer.įor the brief moment of time that he doesn't see the disgusting aspects of human behavior, he can feel like a part of the human race ('like a person'), rather than his prior state of revolted alienation. I feel like a person for a moment of my life.ĭisliking people being jackasses ('baying'), and responding with a desire for escapism ('hide').

The reading I'm going to give is far from the only possible interpretation, but hopefully the reasons I prefer it will become clear as I go through the song. My InterpretationThis song is surprisingly ambiguous. Then feel your weight in arms I'd never use Than try to kiss the skin that crawls from you To feel your weight in arms I'd never useīut I don't know what else that I would give To have someone kiss the skin that crawls from you I feel like a person for a moment of my lifeīut you don't know what hell you put me through