[the origin of love]

When the earth was still flat, and the clouds made of fire
And mountains stretched up to the sky, sometimes higher
Folks roamed the earth like big rolling kegs
They had two sets of arms, two sets of legs
They had two faces peering out of one giant head
And they could watch all around them, and they talked while they read
And they never knew nothing of love
It was before the origin of love, origin of love

And there were three sexes then
One that looked like two men glued back to back, called the children of the sun
And similar in shape and girth were the children of the earth,
They looked like two girls rolled up in one
And the children of the moon were like a fork shoved on a spoon
They were part sun, part earth, part daughter, part son
Origin of love

Now the gods grew quite scared of our strength and defiance
And Thor said:
I'm gonna kill them all with my hammer, like I killed the giants.
And Zeus said:
No, you better let me use my lightning, like scissors
Like I cut the legs off whales, and dinosaurs into lizards.
Then he grabbed up some bolts, and he let out a laugh, said:
I'll split them right down to the middle, gonna rip them right in half.
And then storm clouds gathered above into great balls of fire

And then fire shot down from the sky in bolts, like shining blades of a knife
And it ripped right through the flesh of the children of the sun, and the moon, and the earth
And some Indian god sewed the wound up into a hole,
Pulled it 'round to our belly to remind us of the price we pay
And Osiris and the gods of the Nile gathered up a big storm,
To blow a hurricane, to scatter us away
In a flood of wind and rain, and a sea of tidal waves to wash us all away
And if we don’t behave, they'll cut us down again
And well be hopping round on one foot, looking through one eye

Last time I saw you, we had just split in two
You were looking at me, and I was looking at you
You had a way so familiar, but I could not recognize
'Cause you had blood on your face, and I had blood in my eyes
But I could swear by your expression
That the pain down in your soul was the same as the pain down in mine
That's the pain, cuts a straight line down through the heart, we call it love
So we wrapped our arms around each other, trying to shove ourselves back together
We were making love
It was a cold dark evening such a long time ago, when by the mighty hand of Jove
It was the sad story how we became lonely two-legged creatures
It's the story of, the origin of love
That's the origin of love, origin of love, origin of love

[in Hedwig and the Angry Inch Original Soundtrack, lyrics and music by Stephen Trask, as covered by Rufus Wainwright in Wig in a Box]