They say, why are you this way I don’t get it Why can’t you change your ways? And in response to my long-overdue dismay, I smile A bit A tad A cinch Enough to make you spontaneously disappear From my mind That’s clear Ocean water flowing over here A water goddess thick with cement and tears to spill Over-emotional until Over-sacrimonious until The water in the faucet gets swallowed up by the drain And I lie beside my bedroom window, staring fondly at the rain The pain, the aches, the pain To my dismay I’m born again today
We missed you last winter And the three winters before that You disappeared at the drop of a hat A raccoon, a skunk, a snake, and a bat Can I have my healthy father back?
You disappeared until The cockroaches, in vast numbers, grew taller and taller I prayed and I wished to get smaller and smaller I knew by December that you weren’t coming back I knew in April how to rehabilitate a heart attack But it wasn’t yours upon which to act And I wasn’t getting you back It hit hard and felt sad and drove me straight into the deep Underneath where I’m found now Thick layers thus far I seep And everybody around me weeps
I unfolded and turned out to be obsolete I’m not particularly pretty, but I’m sharp on my feet In battle, I know the right point to retreat I’ll take the heat Swallow it up I’m shallow, but in ways you’ll come to adore Me, untangled – me, free Me – hopelessly, irrevocably Come see me Stay by my side and wait Don’t grow impatient, stay Watch my most beautiful act of decay And disappearance From the trenches Last that you hear I’m over the fence And gone with the wind I’m tired of the things everybody does to each other here
Holding a picture of my father in battle, in war Until God forced out his last breath Heaven-sent I’m shallow, but in ways you’ll come to adore But shallow waters weren’t what he had in store Crimson blood galore
Save me before I keep on breathing Save me, these people keep on leaving