Oh Sister - 1995

Oh sister, don't be afraid of me
I won't be nailing you down in the nursery
Just like the rest of them did
With those watery, wandering fingers of spit
That were supposed to be glorious and fine

Oh sister, won't you believe in me?
I only wanted to be hard on the family
Here with you now in this silly infirmary
Your mother makes frantic and drunk calls
From Germany all of the time

And oh sister, sweet brown and beulahery
Milk from your blisters on your grandmother's jewelry
There in the parlor, all naked in front of me
Watching the lights from the cracks
Making archery animal designs

Rose Wallace Goldaline
Just moves her mouth over anything
That's fleshy, free and flowering
Like oranges out in the open

But don't you waste your sins again
She don't need you or won't fuck your friends
And you, well, you're American
Self important boiling over

To prove that she must still exist
She moves herself about her fist
And won't ever, never give a shit
About all those words you're wasting
To gain some pretty, bright and bubbly
Wondrous dream you'd like to kill
And cling and claim her as your own

But don't you worry
All those dainty and dirty
Emotions just go away
And fade out on their own

Sister, now that you're leaving
Our fingers will falter, our lungs will be leaking
All over each other and without even speaking
We'll know that it's over and smile
And go greeting whatever comes next

And oh sister, you're getting married
To some angry twister
That you'll have to carry home drunk
Every evening from the cemetery
If he makes it back half-alive
You can bury him under your sheets

And oh sister, now that you're grieving
I cannot imagine there is any meaning
Forgetting you ever could once have the feeling
That made you keep on and continue
To breathing of all of this world

And in an age of empty rings
I don't want to feel a thing
I don't even want to know

Rose Wallace Goldaline
Don't you ever die on me
Don't you own the way you go