money cant buy happiness but it can rent louise

elastic stretched thin the mind bends on
we're slobs in defense of an over turned blonde
pintos out of fuel and she starts walking in the rain
gonna beat the train to levettown on those stems again...
the bombshell shes afflicted
and her fathers still addicted
one more junky promise
just a score to beat the ages

now me thinks she dont protest enough
one night standing on a broken heel
laughing at traffic in the down pour of the century
shes got a diamond in her handbag and a gold tooth collection
every soldier she encounters has a name that sounds familiar
but they left no room for error or for jesus on the dance floor

night comes breathing heavy on the neck of bitter days
they tumble in seductive outbursts
dipped in cherry flavoured lip balm
on my better days im know to all the fellas as louise
but if you get me far away from Bristol ill be any one you please

now mister,
can you help a disaster find a payphone and a shot
bourbon if your buying penicillin if your not
cause theres a round of applause after the audience is gone
and im left to my devices looking for the perfect john.

Count it

There are somethings she can always count on in life
Her father will always call
Drunk
From a loud bar
And shout conversation
Over 12 states and breaking bottles

There will be two to three calls a night all from her brother
at least three times a week
Anywhere between 10pm and 3am pacific coast time
Slurring on the front porch
Recapping the entire evening
Over and over

She continues to attract men with current or prior opiate addictions.
Or men at the bottom of a bottle.
She won't ever trust one of them.
Or become an alcoholic.

Everything she knows about romance is a fairy tail.
She is jaded in the right light.
She is as constant as a dial tone.
And as lonely.

Her phone rings
It must be around 11pm
She doesn't answer it.

My Own Shadow

I thought I saw a man
in the corner of my room
where dusty memories gather
where ugly troubles loom

something in the shadows
made it look like he was hurt
clutching at his ear
blood running through his shirt

I kept blinking hard and peering
hoped he'd go away
but he just chewed at all my loose leaf
turning black and white to grey

as I trembled he made smiles
as I whispered he would grunt
in the darkness of my bedroom
I felt around for something blunt

he spun quick and the eye contact rattled me
he tossed a notebook against the wall
as he hissed and lifted I went missing
scrambling witless down the hall