Pink-Slips

Three brides before breakfast
These rails that just wrecked us
Right hand on my heart
While my left hand snaps your necklace
Each day gets a little more scary
We're holding on, in a way, but just barely
Moms and dads are rationing their cash for the commissary

But I can't stop without going all the way
It's a habit someone gave me
The nursemaid of the blank page
A canary of the American eclipse
A profiteer picking up pink slips

This wish just to go back, hey
When I know I wasn't ever, ever happy
Show me my best memory, it's probably super crappy
Nine years down in Texas
With sluts of both sexes
Liars, lumps, and drug addicts, and drunks, I love my friends

But I can't stop without going all the way
And I've been that way since '83
The midwife of the jetlife
Or a genie with a golden spliff
A prostitute paid in pink slips

I crashed my Cadillac in the valley of mirrors
When the call came, there was nobody here
When they came from the communists, I kissed them on the lips
Then they came for the singers, in a haze of pink slips, oh

I guess I was just dreaming and drifting
Artificially lifted
Only happy 'til the age of ten is still a gift

But we can't go back to those 227 days
It's just a dream we all were having
Hey, mariner in the dirt trade
Oh, postman of the post-apocalypse
From Academy Awards to pink slips

And I showered my Corvette with Moët for years
Now I'm standing in the rain drinking the champagne of beers
They say, "Who's that shadow sneaking off behind the pier?
He was rushed and then he was rattled, but now he's finally in the clear
To be a refugee from the rat race
In his white tuxedo and his sad-face
A music group that your dad plays
Singing songs about autumn days
He's the laureate of the Granite State
Now he doesn't even write, he just riffs
And they'll cover up his coffin with pink slips"