Janey Beneath

Janey fell in with the bad crowd
did her own first tattoo
cut off her pigtails with a box knife
dyed the remains blue

Janey fell in love with a street boy
with baggies and vials for purchase
he taught her about the world she sleeps through
and brought her evil to the surface

She didn't go to school much now
she put poison pills in her nose
and the street boy whistled 'neath the train bridge
when he pinned her and cut off her clothes

I saw Janey's bruises and shattered spirit
I poured a round and asked why
and who's this monster who wears her smile
she said, "he'll love me or he'll die."

Janey and the street boy were the perfect pair
in a stolen old Skylark cruising town
He brought her back beneath the bridge one night
to show her where he laid his enemies down

she squinted in the darkness at shallow graves
in his filthy littered bitter sanctuary
she rubbed the razor scar on her hip
from when she lost her rose in an unmarked cemetery

She keeps an army bag with her always
there's a pistol by her cigarette case
as she smiles and lifts it, the trigger gives
and she leaves him laying in his sacred place