Face Of Love (feat. Midwife)

Her nametag says Elena, but she moves just like you used to

When I order a drink, our eyes meet and the walls recede into—

Fog so thick I can hardly see

Stumbling through the woods to the sound of your feet kicking up leaves

I find you on your knees staring at a nest of dead copperheads

Under a tree-split boulder I say

“When you're running like a maniac

You'll get there fast but the wind whips colder"

You grab the cross hanging at your chest

Your other hand, soft, on the back of my head as I'm catching my breath

You lick my ear then nearly bite it off

“Save preaching for the flock,” you say

Then smile at the rocks and proclaim

“Here's the spot where God said to me

'Once love has a face, child, you can never be free'”

Sweetheart, nothing can save you from the face of my love

Sweetheart, nothing can save you from the face of my love

Elena's hand mimes that she's waiting for me

Stick-and-poke lines etch the tide on her sleeve

And birthmarks off the coast of her sea change shape and fade

Near the nape of her neck, the faint pink of a dead reef

But her eyes shine with a violet hue

I've only seen in you, the same pious smile too

My whiskey sweats on Elena's tray

As I try to count the years or the decades I've aged since I drove away

Like a snake that bites after death, some faces are ageless, in stasis

'Til one night they inject shame into an older you

What's left to do? But project on the ice as it melts in your drink

Sweetheart, nothing can save you from the face of my love

(Watch her shimmy though acrylic beads)

Sweetheart, nothing can save you from the face of my love

(Her hips are swaying, but I see yours swing)

Sweetheart, nothing can save you from the face of my love

(My broken body starts to feel like it’s seventeen; I hear you singing)

The highway threads a line through your past

Do you see me every time you look back?

Bright red in the sunrise crying, wondering where you might be driving

In the fading crowds of fools you lie to, do traces of my face still find you?

(In the fading crowds of fools you lie to)

Wait for me

(Do traces of my face still find you?)

I'll jump in the truck and speed

(In the fading crowds of fools you lie to)

'Til I'm between your knees in the Technicolor gleam

(Do traces of my face still find you?)

Of the Starlight Drive-in screens

(In the fading crowds of fools you lie to)

Then I'll get that jealous priest who ran me out, baby

(Do traces of my face still find you?)

He's just a fraud like me

(In the fading crowds of fools you lie to)

And when my knuckles start to bleed, you'll kiss 'em clean

(Do traces of my face still find you?)

Yeah, but that's a fantasy

(In the fading crowds of fools you lie to)

'Cause I'm just ashes waiting to be scattered

(Do traces of my face still find you?)

Any place is fine, don't really matter