Poison Oak

Poison oak, some boyhood bravery When our telephone was a tin can on a string And I fell asleep with you still talking to me You said you weren't afraid to die In Polaroids, you were dressed in women's clothes Were you made ashamed? Why'd you lock them in the drawer? Well, I don't think that I ever loved you more Than when you turned away, when you slammed the door When you stole the car and drove towards Mexico And you wrote bad checks just to fill your arm I was young enough, I still believed in war Well, let the poets cry themselves to sleep And all their tearful words will turn back into steam But me, I'm a single cell on a serpent's tongue There's a muddy field where a garden was And I'm glad you got away, but I'm still stuck out here My clothes are soaking wet from your brother's tears And I never thought this life was possible You're the yellow bird that I've been waiting for The end of paralysis, I was a statuette Now I'm drunk as hell on a piano bench And when I press the keys, it all gets reversed The sound of loneliness makes me happier