Pittsburgh

My mom would give me twenty

And say "stay out till dawn"

When her boyfriend was over

And they wanted me gone

I would walk through the woods

To the old graveyard

And roll my own Tops

And think two kinds of thoughts

Are we high enough to clear these trees

I don't know

That was the summer

Dave's girlfriend O.D.d

She died in the bathroom

At a party down the street

I went to see him the next night

He had a new tattoo

He was watching home movies of her

His face was wet

He looked so confused

They had a funeral for her

The preacher said she was with the lord

There were lots of pictures of her

Taped to a poster board

Are we high enough to clear these trees

I don't know

Are we high enough to clear this place

I don't know

Grocery stores in the middle of the night shine their own kind of light

High school halls and shopping malls never fit me right

But my heart would swing free

Like a lasso from my hand

When I'd hear that sound

And put the pedal down

I wound up that Fall

In a hospital

On the suicide wing

With a lot of people thinking one thing

They had a sign on the wall

It said 'no touching at all'

There were screams in the night

Nurses running down the hall

On the night that I got there

They showered me and searched me hard

Then they took me to my little room

Overlooking a graveyard

When I opened my eyes

I was strapped to the bed

There was a needle in my arm

Part of me was gone

Then they took us outside

In our slippers and gowns

To play basketball on the blacktop

The ball just bounced till it stopped

Are we high enough

To clear these trees

I don't know

Are we high enough to clear this place

I don't know

Grocery stores in the middle of the night shine their own kind of light

High school halls and shopping malls never did me right

But my heart would swing free

Like a lasso from my hand

When I'd hear that sound

And put the pedal down

When the leaves were wet

Behind the old duplex

We used to run at night

Naked through the trees

And you would lean back against me

And I would try to stay soft

We'd listen to the engines

As the planes took off