She ain't a day over 11 with nails Painted with magic marker and heels Two sizes big, make her walk kinda funny They call her a lizard, but she's making money So fuck em Wander the tarmac till some headlights beckon A wink in the nighttime, that's romance she reckons She never known love that didn't come from an angle Violence and tenderness, they all get sorta tangled Up inside her Her daddy keeps a .410 on the table during dinner He once let her hold it so she'd know that it ain't in her To ever do something that he says she might regret He says "You think that times are tough? Just wait and see how tough they get "Without me" And of course her dreams aren't gone They just sorta moved along And that's how come she's feelin left behind And of course she's tired of this shit But she's also used to it Sayin "You go on, I'll catch up with you in time" Inside a cabin with a man thrice her age She tries concentratin on the dashboard display An older girl once told her, never call em by their names And if you don't look em in the eyes they'll start to look the same After so long Sometimes at night she dreams of fire on a lake Awakes and sits up like a stepped-upon rake Thinks of going home and of how long she's been gone Then of what they'll say of all the awful shit she's done And she lies back down It ain't how you think it'd be, like carryin round a weight It's more like diggin holes or like givin things away My God, if she kept count the number'd drive her insane She never been out dancin, but she's circlin the drain Every evening And of course her dreams aren't dead They just sorta gone ahead And that's how come she's feelin left behind And of course she's tired of this shit But she's also used to it Sayin "You go on, I'll catch up with you in time"

I was born in a small town on a river And I's raised up to be an arrow in the quiver Of my dear country, and you know it wasn't long Until they fired me in the name of Shock and Awe I saw the fields where we harvest all our foes By whose bleedin the next war becomes sewn And I asked the planters "What's that crop called?" "That old heirloom? She goes by Shock and Awe" I took my ride on the machine I got off it, but it ain't off of me I got prescriptions, and I fill em all Every morning a dose or two of Shock and Awe I ain't broken; but dyin for a cause, It requires you forfeit any hope you have at all So when you call it back home it comes leery, like a dog Scared away by the sounds of Shock and Awe I was hurtin for some sympathy today So I drove out to a spot where they do things that way And I flashed my high beams and she answered the call And I looked upon her with eyes of Shock and Awe

"My God, you're a baby. Where are your parents? Why are you here?" "The same reasons you are. You got a pain, I make pain disappear" "Who taught you to say that? Who taught you to roll the waist of your shorts?" "Look, are we gonna do this? Cause wastin time is something I can't afford "See, if I don't count my blessings they might be gone by the time I wake up "It's 'Baby, did you miss me?' It's 'Girl, quit your cryin, you gonna run your makeup' "I can't complain. No, I couldn't complain if I wanted to" "Tell me where is your home, dear. We could leave now and you could see it tonight" "No, I can't betray him. If I'm being honest, he treats me alright" "He taught you to say that. I'm asking you to talk for yourself" "Yeah, he's got me fucked up. But is he any worse than anyone else? "See, if I don't count my blessings I might forget what the fuck they look like "It's 'Baby, did you miss me?' It's 'Girl, quit your cryin, you gonna have a long night' "I can't complain. No, I couldn't complain if I wanted to" "You could write em a letter. I'm gonna see they get it myself" "Sayin what exactly? That I suck dick for money and I'm going to hell?" "In Matthew it's written, you leave 99 to go after one" "Yeah, that's assuming your sheep ain't a whore on the strip getting tricked "See, if I don't count my blessings--well, anyway, I guess I oughta thank you "Do you think they miss me? Please just don't em all the shit I'm into "I can't complain. No, I couldn't complain if I wanted to"

I'm lost as a raindrop fallen at sea I'm worn as the teeth on a buried house key I'm faint as the taste of thine own blood to thee So please keep an eye on your memories of me Be as devout in vigil as Mary at the cross Or the TV you left home without turnin off Or the wind that's holdin your banner aloft While also frayin its ribbons apart You will try to hold on for as long as you can They'll be buildin new homes where the older ones stand You'll be squintin so tightly but I won't come together When they bulldoze the ghetto I hope it don't look any better Some unfaded paint where a portrait had hung Or a letter you'd written to yourself when you were young You hate to engage with things that're gone So don't thinkin on me feel just like starin at the sun? You will try to hold on for as long as you can They'll be buildin new homes where the older ones stand I wish hearts could break in coordinated efforts We could have a big old countdown, and let go of each other together

Black damp killed my old man It snuffed out his life and his lamp The word ran like water through the coal camp It was black damp I'd take some black lung myself Since the government pays for poor health And the hiring guy at Wal-Mart's overrun Gimme black lung Black tar killed my old woman She rotted the veins in her arms She blew out her pupils and totaled her car High on black tar Now the black market's taken my daughter A lamb being led to the slaughter A young man just gave me a letter she signed I guess I'll go take back what's mine It's like a black cloud just hangs over us It's what sealed all the gangways shut It's what gets your kid lost and her mother strung out That old black cloud

I knew my mama by her breathing through the walls And I knew my papa by his footsteps in the hall Summertime, the beetles'd come and worship on the screen Arm against the doorjamb, I was maybe 17 Thinkin life between the welcome signs was gettin old Pa said "Find a woman for to help you share the load" So I had a wedding, bought a kit house and some land Love tried takin root but proved a sapling in the sand So I tied her on a reel and dropped her into the killin fields The first guy I had her fuck I thought I recognized from school She cried in the tub and asked how I could be so cruel I thought about her tears becoming lost within the bath I told her she was free to go, if she thought they'd take her back Business grew, and on and on, like this for a couple years I got me a fleet of girls to fill the tub with tears One was this here Jenna, not a day over 11 I weened her off of schoolboys and onto antidepressants Till one day when a ghost appeared, to take her out of the killin fields I called her in and bid her "Won't you draw the blinds a tad? "I was eatin dinner and found a letter from your dad "How the fuck he find you? You been giving out your name? "Now, don't act surprised when I say you ain't fit to remain "I'll sneak you in a freighter--I'll slip you down the corridor "My cousin runs a ranch off a ramp in Adwolf "There you gonna find search parties ain't round up for whores "There's plenty other bodies if they can't recover yours" Then a sound near broke my ears, and nearly broke the killin fields It was four knocks from the other side, past the motel door As frightened and as hollow as the old particle board I looked down at Jenna but my eyes would not be met Knocks again, growing louder now and sounding more intent "Pray that ain't your father or you gonna be an orphan soon" Before I even said the word he was inside the room He didn't even mind me, he just looked at her and ached I thought to grab my .410 from beside my dinner plate But I'd slowly turning gears on that day on the killin fields She already held the chrome inside her little hands Greasy hair behind her ears and a skinny-legged stance He said "Jenna, don't make some mistake you can't undo" I said "Girl, you know that you ain't got it inside you" He said it didn't matter, all the pain that happened here He said their home still looked the same as when she disappeared But love is such an awful thing, it oughta be a sin I don't think he realized the gun was aimed at him

"How came that blood on your shirt sleeve? "Oh sister, tell me" "Well, it is the blood of the old gray tom "Who chased the mouse for me" "How came that blood on your shirt sleeve? "Oh sister, tell me" "Well, it is the blood of the old black hound "Who watched the door for me" "How came that blood on your shirt sleeve? "Oh sister, tell me" "Well, it is the blood of my own dear pa "Who came to rescue me" "Well, it's what will you do now sister? "Oh sister, tell me" "I will be locked into yonder freight "And carried off from thee" "Well, it's when will you be back sister? "Oh sister, tell me" "When their hands don't smell like gasoline "And that will never be"

I can see the sun through the holes in the fiberglass And I consume exhaust till it shows me my past Holes in walls and arms, laces missin from shoes Yeah, you ain't surprised, but it's all I ever knew My bloodline's lookin extra bloody these days Cereal for dinner, that was all she could prepare A prize at the bottom and a daughter in her hair If we're meek enough, we'll inherit the Earth But of course that's only after they've had their way with her first My bloodline's lookin extra bloody these days A funeral for mama, and a ride home with dad Sinkin every night into an air mattress pad Thinkin maybe I'm a bother, maybe I'm a freak I made a friend online who I'm thinkin maybe I should meet Your bloodline's lookin extra bloody these days I shoulda been born in another time Buddy Holly horn-rims, his college pin would mean he's mine Or him in armory and on his sleeve my ribbons waving Or a trench in Cantigny, where the thought of me is all that saves him But ain't the memory worn, and the ribbons torn and the glasses broken? My whole life was in front of me, that much I'll admit Though I never stood a chance of actually catchin up to it But anyone can tell you just how badly I tried I guess a girl can only take so much carbon monoxide

How the hell could you know how a human should behave When astronomically speakin you were just born yesterday? And how the hell could I have felt your star growin faint? It's just a flicker in the distance till one evening it ain't Though a black hole on my shoulder, when I left you on the field Fightin, we, for different causes but a similar ideal Which was makin motherfuckers rich who can't care if we die Burnin up (on reentry) or out (in the nebulae) And how the hell could I have saved my outrage from decline When biochemically speaking I am changing all the time? And how the hell could you expect that much from anyone When the world was in agreement you were right where you belonged? Adderall and alcohol, Benzedrine and weed Lookin from the outside-in on all my memories Till I saw my pretext for its limp-dick cowardice And the haunted imprint you left in my passenger seat So by the point of pistol I surmised where you had gone I overtook a freighter on I-81 I run him on the shoulder, made him open up his doors And I stumbled cross the pallets till I found you on the floor You got lost, honey, in a wilderness I had hoped I wouldn't find you looking like this I'll go back with a .45 in my hand And I'm gonna kill him in the coldest blood I can

I could grow my mustache thick We could hop upon a steamer ship We could head down to El Salvador And live among the poorest poor And unionize banana farms And when they scab us, take up arms To lead the fight for workers' rights With you is all I want from life We could get some khaki shorts In a Sub-Saharan airport The Serengeti would call our names "I need a 4-wheel drive, all-terrain "Something poachers can't outrun "And a box of shells and a shotgun" Fightin fire with fire all night With you is all I want from life We could pray beneath the sun As-salamu alaykum Then get back to cuttin hay With a scythe, that was my father's way Your voice is a glass so fair The mountains hold it everywhere To stack the dry grass half as high With you is all I want from life We could have a war break out And I'll go away to fight the Kraut You'll stay home and rivet steel And on Fridays watch the new news reel And you'll swear you've seen me on the screen But it can't be me who you have seen You'd learned I'd died the day before To look you in the eyes no more But Western Union got it wrong! The new word is I'm well and strong You're goddam right, and I'm comin home I would've ran if I hadn't flown "Oh my God, I'm in the room" "Tell me what it is you wanna do" "To hold the years and watch em die "With you is all I want from life"

If I was a story, you'd be my narrator If I was a cowboy, you'd be my saddle maker i wanna make you feel so proud Another flannel in the crowd If I was a body, you'd be my soul incarnate A sailor's bicep? You'd be the old ink on it I wanna make you feel amused By the analogies I use And I wanna love you, and hold your hand in mine And skate figure eights till our hearts are intertwined Yeah God forbid I feel something explicit Without obscurity or ambivalence See, I hate this protocol that keeps you apart from me And I hate this city and its teeming arteries I wanna found a colony on Neptune Where all the history books start with the day I met you And I hate these hipsters and their sleeve tattoo addictions That can't change the fact that they all grew up in subdivisions Yeah, just keep on like you're doing us a favor By having a black family for your neighbors Hey, they fucking hate you, and Father John Misty too And they hate the walls that they always hear you through While you impress each other quoting Wayne Coyne and Wu-Tang And get nostalgic when the playlist hits 'New Slang' See, I want the suburbs, where there's no subtlety to suffering We can flatter ourselves with underachieving offspring I want some silence and some soft frustration A slamming-cabinet-inarticulation And in the summers, we'll go to Edward's Isle We'll see Green Gables, we'll see our daughter smile And that will have to be our consolation And consequently our culmination Till one day I'm balding, I'm good and emasculated I'm talking through dinner about who I would've traded And you'll grit your teeth and say "It does not matter "Because you ain't the motherfucking general manager" And I'll say "That's just fine! I'm glad you feel that way" And later that night I'll think of what I wanna say Which is: My love for you lives on a great frontier And it's settlin new territory each year But your love for me just lingers by the shore And wonders what it ever left the Old Country for And I would die to get you off that coast If I believed that you could love a ghost But I'll never say that, we'll never talk about it Until our mouths become so overcrowded With words that never saw the light of day They start to rot and then just pass away And then we're tame, we're without complications Like passion and hunger, humor and expectations And then with nothing left to want or dread One morning there's a corpse inside your bed No, let's never do that, I never want that for us Let's just be here now, and hear another chorus, like this: If I was stranded on a desert island, and I'd never met you and I was nearly dyin And I needed some thought--some vision of a woman And I'd never met you (that part is real important) I would imagine you down to each detail Down to your laugh and eyes and taste and toenails

Driving on through Lebanon With your hand inside of my hand You and me in Galilee Just a couple of wolves on the lam I'm haunted by thunder in a nation asunder All of the peace upon Him And there's none left for us, so I must adjust With a brick of C-4 on my skin And you there beside me, the window that guides me The only thing that I know You got a brow so serene for the Mujaheddin A shame I won't watch it grow old We get to the station and all the elation It drains from your face and it's gone And I agree with you and I hand you my tissue And say "It's braver to stay and live on"