Shawn Colvin

Polaroids

please no more therapy
mother take care of me
piece me together
with a needle and thread
wrap me in eiderdown
lace from your wedding gown
fold me and lay me down
on your bed
or liken me to a shoe
blackened and spit-shone through
kicking back home to you
smiling back home
singing back home to you
laughing back home to you
dragging back home to you

i was so wary then
the ugly american
thinner than oxygen
tough as a whore
i said you can lie to me
i own what's inside of me
nothing surprises me anymore
but forests in germany
kids in the tuileries
broken-down fortresses in old italy
and claiming his victory
shrouded in mystery
he went running away with me

back in our home new york
walking these streets forlorn
we all in our uniforms
black and black
doing that slouch and jive
the artist must survive
we've all we need
we cried
and we don't look back
thinking we had it made
poised for the hitparade
knee deep in accolades
the conceptual pair
but ever the malcontent
he left without incident
vanished into thin air

now i am always amazed
words can fill up a page
pages fill up these days
between him and me
but the vows that we never keep
from bedrooms to business-speak
make me remember how cheap words can be
and the letters i wrote you of
were those of the desperate stuff
like begging for love
and a suicide threat
but i am too young to die
to old for a lullaby
too tired for life on the ledge

but i had a dream last night
of lover who walked the plank
out on the edge of time
amidst ridicule
they laughed as they rocked and reeled
over the mining fields
coming to rest
on this ship of fools
but he just took polaroids
of her smile in the light
of the dawn of the menacing sky
and before they went overboard
she turned and held up a card
and it said "valentine"