You carry the beach in your way-too-short hair

That you shaved off last week cause you freaked and got scared

That when it's longer, you remind me of her



So you offered it up with what passed for authority

Some strict sort of challenge you directed straight at me

You said, "Forget her, I don't care what you two were"



But it's a trick on your ego

A two-step off tempo

A solid gold bracelet

Under lights, in a window

In some shopping mall where I never go



You play coy and count tiles, drag your toes through the water

Raise your eyes, bite your lip, and my mind's in the gutter

You move at me and take my face in your hands



I feel light bulbs explode in a fire-cracked thunder

Sense the slow seismic shift of the sprawling cloud cover

But when we're finished I feel awful again



So it's the same sorry story

Just the cast changes nightly

And it skips like a record but it glows like a movie

Or the country sky that I never see



The shake in your voice makes me feel empty and ugly

All scattered anger like a windstorm, howling violently

And I wanna fade out and wake up somewhere else

Where no face is familiar and I'm left by myself

To keep plugging away on my own wasted time

To eat badly and spend all my money and write

To not feel too guilty to be tired at night

Since I'm not fixing things here, I'll leave them behind

So you make your decision

I'm through making mine



Now I walk where the street swallows light like it's water

I see the slant of your smirk on every kid at the corner

But if you called, I'd never know what to say

So I just hope you never will

Things are easier that way