Hey boy
whatcha runnin away from
Hey girl
whatcha tryin to turn into
Let me show you a tower of flashing lights
reflected on a moving screen
and running in place as the sun recedes
from the coming nighttime
Ramona, she’s flicking a smoke
on a distant highway
oh my love, you’ve beaten the flame
to a crown of tumbling ash
and oh my hate precedes me now
to the silent catacombs
where the dead have no need of our picture shows
Driving out
to the wasteland of our hearts
I could see her change from innocence
to a blank and empty mask
and all around, the air
grew stale and cold
I knew it wasn’t the end, just
the end of our youth
she took my hand
broke the seal from the door
said, “the sacred frames can’t show
what is really there.”
and I’ll never be the same again
and I’ll never be the same again
just a burned-out film
with the spool gone off the track
reporting crimes
with figures stacked
against
the wall.
oh my life is fading now
just like the city snow
and oh my love is beaten down
to a featureless charade
Ramona was never what I thought she could be
and my desire is etched
into a mirror-fantasy
and oh my hate precedes me now
into the silent catacombs
where the dead have no need of our picture shows.
