Lyrics Burning Herself - Harry Chapin

Burning Herself

I guess she had to be
I was angry (you were blind)
Because I could not see
I saw only what her cigarettes had done to her skin
I should have known the outside world
Would reveal what was within
She was burning herself
And her hair was filled with ashes
She was burning herself
And her life becomes a flame
She was burning herself
And the flame became her passion
She was burning herself
And her passion
Her passion was her pain
She was trusting (you could have saved her too)
All hope had passed for her
I was lusting (and she gave to you)
That’s all I asked for her
The marks upon her body
And the marks upon her mind
I could have erased them
If I’d only taken the time
I never saw her do it
I only saw the scars
I never could imagine
What would make her go that far
I wondered
Was she driven by desperate need to feel
To find out she was living
To discover life was real
Or was it that the pain
Slicing through her like a knife
Was easier to take
Than the emptiness of life?
Had a strange sense of drama
Caught her in a role
Or was she trying to cauterize
The chancres on her sole?
I don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know…