Marbles

Her haircut, she looked pudgy and made-up

In that dress growing ever tighter

It was saddening the lengths she had gone to

To appear more attractive

In the process losing something

We never knew but still missed

You knew you were lost as soon as you saw her

You saw your life as a series of complicated dance steps

Impossible to learn, they had to come naturally

Together you squirmed and wriggled

And I could only jerk along behind

They're going to hurt you

They always will

She is now with me, inside of you

And I could only stare wide-eyed

As everything closed in around the three of us

Things you never saw, talking of the power and rescue

That were rushing through our body

And it's good

She opened the door his face bruised and swollen

Before he knew, pushed, falling down curved stairs

Our message lost and our plans forgotten

Surrounded by men in suits, and black shiny shoes

Moving in, kicking, stamping

Bland expressionless faces

A handful of marbles thrown in a dustbin

Memories, memories

In a northern town there were amazing rows of standing stones arranged on the southern slope

They got out in the last few seconds of consciousness

Look for their inscriptions one day, the most distant ocean plains, those who make the desert island

I saw you in a tin bath in red water

Were the ones who went to Washington to do their laundry

They wanted to see the mysterious hurricane

I never believed in New York, or where you intended to stand

But we don't actually want to see the shipwrecked

I just had to go

They came