Sylvia (An Introduction)

When you were younger, you had nightmares

You had scissor-pain and phantom limbs

And things that kept you nervous

Through that twelve-year interim

When you fell crossing that street

South of Houston, old Manhattan land

Those nightmares fell from building-tops

And took you by the hand

And you were brought into those rooms

With sliding curtains, shining children's heads

And one of them, that boy

Was not as lucky as you then

But he returns to you at night

Just when you think you might have fallen asleep

His face is up against yours

And you're too terrified to speak

Oh, Sylvia

Oh, Sylvia

You may think that I'm not listening

But I am, goddamn, I am

I won't pretend I understand

Because I can't, and know I never will

But something makes you sting

And something makes you want to kill

It made you crawl under that house

And stick your head under the stove

It's all connected

In those complicated nightmares that you wove

Oh, Sylvia

Oh, Sylvia

You may think that I'm not listening

But I am, goddamn, I am