STRANGERS AT A BAR
Never seen eyes so wide
Gaping on a face so loose.
Lips, parched and dry
That robbed your skin of all hues.
On a dreary night, you cried for me
As I forged your bond with sorrow
You whispered to me helplessly
“Please change your mind tomorrow”.
I was there but not there
Mulling over what would come
Brain as quiet as a sealed tomb
Heart as loud as a funeral drum.
And nothing, nothing to hold on to
Nowhere to go
No day nor night
But time for woe.
You said I was too quiet
Tongue-tied and out of tune,
As I plunged into that night
And sank deep with its moon.
Of all the world’s tragic songs
I always savored the instrumental,
So honey pardon me if I seemed
Reserved and unsentimental.
You’re sweet like the first smile of dawn
That softens the early birds’ fray;
You pack their flocks with your song
Then send them to sing the day.
In the last act of my dream
Performers retire to their hollow space,
I open my eyes and you are there
With some of God on your face.
And warmth emanates from your body
And cold scrams through your kindness
And residues of my frozen heart
Fluently dissolve in your lightness.
As I sail through your naked fire
I cling to an ice floe past the shore
There, in the corridors of my mind
Darkness deepens a little more.
There I’m alone. Extinct.
A lost child beaten black and blue.
You see I belong here in this wreck
And that’s no place for someone like you.
And when I crawl up my bruised piano
To restore your gentle, mellow croon,
I try to play a key or two
Ah, I seem to have lost the tune.
Now the feast will soon be over
Baby, meet me in my car
I’ll drive us back into that night
When we were strangers at a bar.
The feast is nearly over
We failed to catch the shooting star
So let us wish upon that night
When we were strangers at a bar.
The feast is almost over
And the way back home is far
So let’s keep drinking to that night
When we were strangers at a bar.
Now the great feast is over
And everyone has left the bar
I hear the morning birds calling
Darling, au revoir.
Gaping on a face so loose.
Lips, parched and dry
That robbed your skin of all hues.
On a dreary night, you cried for me
As I forged your bond with sorrow
You whispered to me helplessly
“Please change your mind tomorrow”.
I was there but not there
Mulling over what would come
Brain as quiet as a sealed tomb
Heart as loud as a funeral drum.
And nothing, nothing to hold on to
Nowhere to go
No day nor night
But time for woe.
You said I was too quiet
Tongue-tied and out of tune,
As I plunged into that night
And sank deep with its moon.
Of all the world’s tragic songs
I always savored the instrumental,
So honey pardon me if I seemed
Reserved and unsentimental.
You’re sweet like the first smile of dawn
That softens the early birds’ fray;
You pack their flocks with your song
Then send them to sing the day.
In the last act of my dream
Performers retire to their hollow space,
I open my eyes and you are there
With some of God on your face.
And warmth emanates from your body
And cold scrams through your kindness
And residues of my frozen heart
Fluently dissolve in your lightness.
As I sail through your naked fire
I cling to an ice floe past the shore
There, in the corridors of my mind
Darkness deepens a little more.
There I’m alone. Extinct.
A lost child beaten black and blue.
You see I belong here in this wreck
And that’s no place for someone like you.
And when I crawl up my bruised piano
To restore your gentle, mellow croon,
I try to play a key or two
Ah, I seem to have lost the tune.
Now the feast will soon be over
Baby, meet me in my car
I’ll drive us back into that night
When we were strangers at a bar.
The feast is nearly over
We failed to catch the shooting star
So let us wish upon that night
When we were strangers at a bar.
The feast is almost over
And the way back home is far
So let’s keep drinking to that night
When we were strangers at a bar.
Now the great feast is over
And everyone has left the bar
I hear the morning birds calling
Darling, au revoir.