My brother Esau killed a hunter Back in nineteen sixty nine And before the killing was done His inheritance was mine But his birthright was a wand to wave Before a weary band Esau gave me sleeplessness And a piece of moral land
My father favoured Esau Who was eager to obey All the bloody wild commandments The old man shot his way But all this favour ended when My brother failed at war He staggered home And found me in the door
Esau skates on mirrors any more Meets his pale reflection at the door Yet sometimes at night I dream He's still that hairy man Shadow boxing the apocalypse And wandering the land Shadow boxing the apocalypse And wandering the land
Esau holds a blessing Brother Esau holds a curse I would say that the blame is mine But I suspect it's something worse The more my brother looks like me The less I understand The silent war That blooded both our hands
Sometimes at night I think I understand Way late at night Oh, I feel I understand It's brother to brother And it's man to man And it's face to face And it's hand to hand The shadow dance The silent war within The shadow dance Never ends, never ends, never ends Shadow boxing the apocalypse Yet again, yet again Shadow boxing the apocalypse And wandering the lan