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There's a bear inside your stomach
The cub's been kicking from within
He's loud, though without vocal chords
We'll put an end to him
We'll make all the right appointments
No one ever has to know
And then tomorrow I'll turn 21
We'll script another show
We'll play charades up in the Chelsea
Drink champagne although you shouldn't be
We'll be blind and dumb until we fall asleep
None of our friends will come
They dodge our calls
And they have for quite a while now
It's not a shock
You don't seem to mind and I just can't see how
We're too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
There's a bear inside your stomach
The cub's been kicking you for weeks
And if this isn't all a dream
Well then we'll cut him from beneath
Well we're not scared of making caves
Or finding food for him to eat
We're terrified of one another
And terrified of what that means
But we'll make only quick decisions
And you'll just keep my in the waiting room
And all the while I'll know we're fucked
And not getting unfucked soon
When we get home we're bigger strangers than we've ever been before
You sit in front of snowy television, suitcase on the floor
We're too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old, old, old at all
The cub's been kicking from within
He's loud, though without vocal chords
We'll put an end to him
We'll make all the right appointments
No one ever has to know
And then tomorrow I'll turn 21
We'll script another show
We'll play charades up in the Chelsea
Drink champagne although you shouldn't be
We'll be blind and dumb until we fall asleep
None of our friends will come
They dodge our calls
And they have for quite a while now
It's not a shock
You don't seem to mind and I just can't see how
We're too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
There's a bear inside your stomach
The cub's been kicking you for weeks
And if this isn't all a dream
Well then we'll cut him from beneath
Well we're not scared of making caves
Or finding food for him to eat
We're terrified of one another
And terrified of what that means
But we'll make only quick decisions
And you'll just keep my in the waiting room
And all the while I'll know we're fucked
And not getting unfucked soon
When we get home we're bigger strangers than we've ever been before
You sit in front of snowy television, suitcase on the floor
We're too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old, old, old at all
Lyrics submitted by Normaljeansxxx
Track duration: 03:54
"Bear" as written by Peter Joseph Silberman
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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If you have the actual CD, in the album notes there are alternate names for each song (You can see them on the Antlers official website too) Bear is also known as
"Children Become Their Parents
Become Their Children"
keeping this in mind, Two has references to what seems to be child abuse, while the child was dealing with cancer. Also in Kettering, "abused by the bone that refused you" makes me think of a parent abusing their child. So in my mind, I do think bear is about an abortion, but not just from the narrators point of view. I feel like perhaps its a flashback, to Silvia's Parents."we'll make all the right appointments, no one ever has to know" to me symbolizes someone feeling that the procedure is foolproof and successful, but "you'll keep me in the waiting room", and the reference of basically being screwed over, says that maybe the abortion didn't work. That perhaps they still have the child and have to live with that, which might explain abuse since if they never wanted the child in the first place they would abuse her.
When you listen to Hospice, it's important to remember that there are two parallel stories being told. The first and most obvious is the story of the caretaker (the narrator) and the cancer patient (for simplicity's sake, lets call her "Sylvia"). This is used as an allegory to describe the complexities and eventual death of a relationship that Peter Silberman was in.
While the lyrics to this song indicate an abortion, it would be quite irrelevant to the rest of the narrative to put a random abortion song smack-dab in the middle of the album. Perhaps, as previous commentors have speculated, it was an abortion that was necessary to undergo cancer treatment, but let's not label this song "Abortion, abortion, abortion!" and move on, there's a bigger, more important picture here.
How does an abortion tie in to the real-life story of Silberman's relationship? You could say that He and his girlfriend had an abortion, but that's far too simple, and certainly not information normal people flaunt to the public. It makes more sense that the abortion (just like the other events in the doctor/sylvia narrative) is simply an allegory for another event in the relationship.
The rest of Hospice indicates that the real life Sylvia's mental/emotional problems (the cancer) and Silberman's inability to help her deal with them ("Cure her") is what tears apart their relationship. In the narrative, we have an abortion, and this strains the doctor/patient relationship (When we get home we're bigger strangers than we've ever been before/You sit in front of snowy television, suitcase on the floor)Think of it this way: An abortion is snuffing out life from inside a woman, something inside of her dying. Something inside of our real-life Sylvia has died, perhaps the last thing left that made Peter love her, now all that remains is negativity.
The very last song of this album describes in vivid detail the dreams you can have when someone close to you dies. I don't think it is any stretch that this song takes place in a dream Peter is having (or was having). I think the biggest clues to this is the line:
And if this isn't all a dream
Well then we'll cut him from beneath
That is a huge hint that this is actually a dream sequence.
So what does the dream mean, then?
Peter loves this girl. He wants to marry her (and does in the song Two ("Two silver rings on our fingers in a hurry" represent engagement and wedding rings). He has a dream that she has something growing inside of her. But instead of a baby, he sees it as a bear, a ferocious animal. But the ferocious bear represents the cancer in the real world. So subconciously, in the dream, they want to abort it.
I think that just about covers it.
Proof: youtube.com/…
The cub's been kicking from within
He's loud, though without vocal chords
We'll put an end to him" and "There's a bear inside your stomach
The cub's been kicking you for weeks
And if this isn't all a dream
Well then we'll cut him from beneath" make that fairly clear. However, I diverge from others opinions because I think it is a song about thinking that abortion is an easy solution and then finding that not only is it not a solution, but it actually creates new problems. This is shown by the lines "When we get home we're bigger strangers than we've ever been before
You sit in front of snowy television, suitcase on the floor." Afterwords they feel remote and empty and their relationship is ruined.
If you take the view that this album is about his daughter, then this song seems like it's about how they considered aborting her because they were unprepared or whatever, and then realised they couldn't, and maybe in her sickness he's reflecting on that and how stupid it was.
"Well we're not scared of making caves
Or finding food for him to eat
We're terrified of one another
And terrified of what that means"
that part has always gotten to me. it's heart wrenching. they know they could take care of their child, but their relationship is so damaged and they're so unsure of each other that they see no choice but to get rid of the child.