Waltz For Annie

Annie please hand me my last cigarette
The last one I'll smoke in my lifetime I'll bet
And after I'll take you on down to the creek
Unless you would rather a movie at 3

The lines in your skin come from where you last sat
Forever a'tracin' your back like a map
Your lips are on fire with lungs of ammonia
Your slow steady breath the winds of South Dakota

In the dark your heart dreams of a lifetime unlived
In the daytime you fight for the strength to forgive
In your every movement a poem unwritten
Lamenting this plane of existence a prison

You take in a breath and exhale exhaust
And recall to me all the time that we lost
Instead of a swim or a musical number
A warm afternoon on the porch in the summer

And all along say life goes on
And bitter is the sting
But all day long that same sweet song
I listen to you sing

Mosquitos resenting the boundaries of smoke
Lean in to hear you and laugh at your jokes
Stories of you and a love you once had
Resisting arrest and a fake heart attack

You spoke unto me of a life you remembered
In sleepy cafes in the cold of November
You looked in my eyes in the heat of remembrance
And smiled like your old self in a passing resemblance

Annie I see you no other can tell
Your shimmering hair hides your migraines quite well
The rose on your arm, the moon on your collar
In pink like your mother, tattoos like your father

Annie I hear you, I'm swept at the notion
Your hurricane rhythms, late night lullabies
That make lovers weep and cum at your side

And all along say life goes on
And bitter is the sting
But all day long that same sweet song
I listen to you sing

And all along say life goes on
And bitter is the sting
But all day long that same sweet song
I listen to you sing
And all day long that same sweet song
I listen to you sing