| I know the you when you are getting dressed
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| Is not the you I’ve really come to know
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| She speaks in shorter phrases
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| And she often can’t remember
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| Which impulsive words were emitted as response
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| But it’s not as selfish or as spanned attention
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| Rather preference for the politics of grooming
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| Hell I’d paint my face and fingers
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| And my toes and lips and eyelids
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| If it meant tonight I didn’t have to think about the future
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| Just to fixate my attention on a wooden powder pencil
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| Not a single thought devoted
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| To whatever’s on outside the house
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| Or even past the door your mother’s bathroom
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| Where we’re sitting
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| And surviving on the steadiness of passing time
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| So when the lines are drawn and all the powders matted
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| You’ll be standing there blinking at your image
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| And you wished that it would turn around
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| And do what it’s supposed to
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| But reflections do not turn themselves away
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| When you were younger and your mother started drinking
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| She would tuck you in and close your bedroom door
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| Then one day you sprung awake
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| Inside a turning twisted dream
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| And you ran downstairs to find her laying out across the floor
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| She did not hear you softly crying near
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| Or feel your mouth all hot against her ear
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| So you kissed her like she taught you
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| And for the first time on a head you got up and tucked your own self in the bed
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| So when the lines are drawn and all the powders matted
|
| You’ll be standing there blinking at your image
|
| And you wished that it would turn around
|
| And do what it’s supposed to
|
| But reflections do not turn themselves away
|
| Yeah you wished that you would turn around
|
| And do what you’re supposed to
|
| But it’s easier to blink and stare and stay |