She’s always listening

But she don’t know what for

The closing of a door

A whistle far away

And though she’s unraveling

She goes on planting seeds

When they come up weeds, she says

A little more love is all it needs
 

Her face in the vanity

She won’t look in the eye
She might start to cry

And what good would that do?

Her friends keep wondering

But she can’t let them know

The scars that never show; she thinks

A little more time, perhaps I’ll go

 

When she said, “Pass the salt”

It sounded like “Goodbye”

She asked, “How was your day?”

But she meant, “I am leaving”

And she says to the clock

Can you imagine me on my own

All alone again?

How could I think

There could be something beyond that door

Anymore for me?

 

He tells her she’s maddening

That she ain’t worth a damn

“You see how tired I am?

Shut up and let me be.”

He’s always vanishing

With his cufflinks and comb

Last time, the shaving foam; she says

I know he still loves me; he came home.

 

And he will never change, for he has no love to give,

And she might find it strange, she’s forgotten how to live.

 

When she said, “Pass the salt”

It sounded like “Goodbye”

She asked if it would rain

But she meant, “I am leaving”

And she says to the clock

If I do better then things are bound

To turn around again

It’s no one’s fault

We all have days when we lose our way

I can pray for him

 

And then one summer dawn,

He waits with empty plate,

The dew burns off the lawn,

The silence sounds like fate,

Perhaps the car is gone,

Or maybe she slept late