Lyrics Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello

The Delivery Man

"Abel was able," so Vivian said

Her shoulders flung forward

Her lips in a purse

She talks like the beauty that she never was

Of the fabulous wild nights that she never has

In a certain light he looked like Elvis

In a certain way he feels like Jesus

Everyone dreams of him just as they can

But he's only the humble Delivery Man

Geraldine blushes and brushes away

The cigarette ashes that Vivian scatters

Stares out of the window at the things that she says

While gossip within her competes with the widow

Ever since he's gone, she feels like crying all the time

She knows for sure Vivian is lying

Now she has a daughter to raise as she can

She just wouldn't trust that Delivery Man

Ivy puts down the ghost story she's reading

Looks up at that face on the wall

Thinking about how her father lay bleeding

Shot in the back 'cos orders were misleading

And how a flag and a medal don't have any meaning

On the 5th of July as they tore down the fair

And he'd seen all the local girls who were worth kissing

With the smell of the gunpowder still in the air

They noticed that Abel and Ivy were missing

In a certain light he looked like Elvis

In a certain way he seemed like Jesus

He said "Why can't we be kind to me like you were meant to be?

When they let me out, I had a brand new identity.

Now everyone dreams of me just as they can.

I want to be your Delivery Man."