Margaret Downe

Margaret in the morning

Sleeping on her side

Tossing men like nickels into

The ever rising tide

I heard she was a dentist

Before she fell in love

Freezing leaden smiles

Just to give them up

Margaret at the office

Margaret at eighteen

She said "sit right down a minute"

She said "let me clean your teeth"

So we settled down in bozeman

In the corner of the world

We raised a couple children

But we lost a little girl

Heartbreak in montana

We slowly grew apart

A grocery clerk in moncton

As she was dancing in the bar

You rushed him to the courtroom

Before the bed was cold

And defrosted out my windshield

When you smiled and let me know

The many cavities pulling

At our marriages tender mouth

And at the root of all the problems

Was a man across the canal

Margaret left the practice

Late in '86

I left behind the midwest

And forgot we ever kissed

I knew she changed her number

But couldn't shake the cough

The doctor gave her six weeks

Which only made her shrug it off

Resting in her fifth week

I brought her buttercups

There was too much to say between us

And I'd only fuck it up

So, I stared up at the ceiling

And I held her little hands

And you knew that I forgave you

For making other plans

Margaret in the morning

Sleeping on her side

Strolls into the waves

Of an ever rising tide