My Childish Bride

Have you ever seen a map laid flat

Four corners pinned back

All the lines and the legend in black

So clear that you feared it was nearly all in your mind?

And the phrase that fell from her lips

Left a rip from the top of your shoulders to the point of your hip

And the feeling that you get is if God exists he’s really unkind

But it’s not what you want to say when you’re losing

All the meaning’s lost in the choosing:

The right side, the wrong side, the side that’s been winning

Forget the words, look back to the beginning

My childish bride, oh how I, miss your face

Sometimes, I see my life slip by across your face

There’s an ocean on land. There’s a plan. There’s a plan

There’s a fifty-foot tower running power over sand

There was a city on a hill. It was a thrill but the lights are all gone

Now we stare at each other like a sister to a brother, like a pusher to a shover

Like a secret to a cover, like a lover to a lover under covers with the stereo on

But it’s not what you said to me when you were leaving

Oh this mass of bodies, we’re heaving the right way, the wrong way, the way that they taught us

Forget your words, remember they got us

My childish bride, oh how I, miss your face

Sometimes, I see my life slip by across your face

Tell me are you real? Do you feel?

Do you steal these moments you reveal with those eyes that can’t conceal?

Were you wronged?

Was your song just some clever thing that you made up?

‘Cause the words are just right and I could listen all night

I could whisper. I could bite. I could write. I could write. I could sing. I could cling

There’s not a single thing I’d ever give up

But it’s not what you meant to me when you were leaving

Oh this mass of bodies all heaving the right way, the wrong way, the way that they taught us

Forget yourself, remember they bought us

My childish bride, oh how I, miss your face

Sometimes, I see my life slip by like a taste of death