Her eyes looked blue from the frontal view
Green when I looked at her from the side
I called her my sweet shape-shifter
We had about a six-year ride
We loved each other in a lot of different states
From Massachusetts to enraptured, confused, and irate
But in the shadow of the Golden Gate
We felt like we'd live forever

Watching breakers on our way through Big Sur
She crashed over me and I crashed over her
Climbing hills somewhere up in Marin
We thought we dodged that old bullet called Original Sin
Then things turned horrible, as they sometimes can
Between sophisticated woman and barbarian man
When you reach the end of the land
You've got to be more than just clever

Now every time I think about the sun
Something in my heart says it's time to run
In other places I can feel like I'm free
But she's ruined California for me

A travel poster, a rocky beach
That building that looks like a mutant pyramid
The mountain range where Jerry Brown built all the windmills
It all reminds me of things we did
It's a beautiful place, postmodern and wild
It's got some goofy architecture but the weather's mild
It's where we thought we'd like to raise up a child
And it's never going to see us together

Now every time I think about the West
Something in my heart flunks another test
You can't help but see the place on TV
And she's ruined California for me

This ain't the first time I've taken a fall
A cat landing rightside up ain't just a cliché
I may wobble over like a Weeble doll
But I'm standing vertical with you here today
You're mighty different; I like that a lot
The things she never had I believe that you've got
I went and bought some tickets; we can take off at three
Please come to California with me

I woke last night with a hole in my head
Dreamed you were leading me far from my leafbed
An onliness sits on all my days
Oh, no, my dear, don't change your ways

Don't fret your pretty head if the soul may travel
To places the days of your life may unravel
There's a rose in my teeth and all my dreams
Oh, no, my dear, don't change a thing for me

This is how it was meant to be
From the foundation of the world

Such my thunderous heart -- never much with my fists
Your friends and loved ones will abide and persist
Yes, I love your new glass, come take your place
Oh, no, my dear, don't change your face for me
No, don't change a thing for me

They drove you around,
the toast of the town,
the ghost with the most.
(Now you are toast.)
I burn up time;
walk the line; lack for wine.
"Bird lives," I scrawl.
My words. Your wall.

I'll write what someone wrote a million times.
I don't expect you'll care about the rhymes.

Below the Beltway you'd go
...if there's anything that low...
tenth circle of Hell!
(I heard you fell.)
You'd swim with the sharks
those teeth leave marks
your angle's so acute
so why not shoot?

This parallel position tricks the brain.
I still can't tell which one's the moving train.
She pulls out from the station with a jerk.
I tell myself, "this ain't a-gonna work."

You rose so high; climb on out, taste the sky.
I watch you on the ledge, seduced by the edge.
Spectacular crash! No cushion of cash.
No problem at all.
My words. Your wall.

I won't exactly say I like the view,
but I can't claim indifference to you,
who saw my game as desperate and strange
now your tin cup can rattle for a change
your psychodramas never were my scene
I need my dose of Psychodramamine^TM
there's turbulence and shrapnel in the air
some parachutes aren't big enough to share
but polished paranoia built for two
I wouldn't wish for anyone but you

You had a hunting partner, that St. Sebastian lad
Who bragged of how he'd grown up on a bleaker street than you had
He liked to show the local girls his creepy crossbow scar
The ones who wouldn't flinch and flee, he'd let 'em drive his car
They sounded tougher than they are

Eventually something caught up with your graced and crazy friend
Everybody heard your prediction he'd meet an early, squirrelly end
You swore on his blood-stained Bible you'd just let that cocaine be
"It was trouble enough for ol' John Cash; it's way too much for me"
The screaming decibels toll for thee

So rest your mind
You know your kind
will always turn out OK
Until that sharpened pendulum swings
and finds you in the way
When that great shadow crosses you
as you hit the wailing wall
Don't look, don't talk; just take that walk
down the bleakest street of all

Susanne hunts Village idiots
Collects these boys like charms
You're dangling from her bracelet as she hangs upon your arm
Of course, you're so much safer now
than your buddy who bought the farm
As long as she's beside you, you can never come to harm
When nobody was looking
she discreetly disconnected your alarm...

Without your trusty foghorn and your clattering castanets
How you gonna find your bed tonight? how you gonna cover your bets?
And how's a pro get bound and gagged when he likes his punchlines dark?
And who will walk down with you when it's time to disembark,
one by one, from No Man's Ark?

So knock one back
You're safe to relax
You're always gonna be OK
Until that sharpened pendulum swings
and completes your dismal day
When that great shadow humbles you
as you try to stand so tall
Don't look
Don't talk
Just take that walk
down the bleakest street of all
Down the Bleakest Street of All