Mattie Ready

    One picture I would draw if I could
    You deeply sleeping
    With your hands folded on the 
            pillow beside you
    The warm room lit only by 
            the light inside you
    And the flicker of a candle 
            lightly leaping
    A lover lying next with his 
            arm around you
    With you within all that 
            surrounds you
    Your secrets safely keeping
    Your secrets safely keeping

    O, Mattie Ready, you wanted a song
    But I can’t say much
    I didn’t stay that long
    Before we even started
    I was already wrong
    I would make things all right
    Only I’m way too gone
    Ah, but, hey, Mattie Ready,
         I wrote you a song


    Well, can’t you slow down some
    You’re getting those tombstone eyes
    Man, you better slow down some
    You’re getting those tombstone eyes
    And when it happens soon
    Do you know anyone who’ll really be surprised
    Not me nor you, not I and I
    Can keep track of all these lies
    You know if you ever get tired
    You can always come back to bed
    And I swear once more I won’t ask you anything there
    About anything that’s been done or said

    O, Mattie Ready, you wanted a song
    But I can’t say much
    I didn’t stay that long
    Before we even started
    I was already wrong
    I would make things all right
    Only I’m way too gone
    Ah, but, hey, Mattie Ready, I wrote you a song


   
    Well, I got your keys
    But I guess I’m the one out of luck
    Cause I think I just saw you
    Climb into someone else’s truck
    Well, I suppose you shouldn’t try it,  sir
    Sir, I guess you shouldn’t try it
    Why do you stand so forlorn when all the others are gone
    In the dark out here out of doors?
    Well, I guess I could go back inside, I guess
    But then I wouldn’t be a horse any more
    Everyone asks me why
    Everyone asks me why
    Because in your eyes I see
    The wind at play and the oceans rise

    O, Mattie Ready, you wanted a song
    But I can’t say much
    I didn’t stay that long
    Before we even started
    I was already wrong
    I would make things all right
    Only I’m way too gone
    Ah, but, hey, Mattie Ready, I wrote you a song


   
    Well, in a while, how do you think
    That you’ll paint this story?
    With candlelight and incense and spells and poems and sighs
    And all that kind of glory
    Maybe something lower, vodka and felonies and pills and wrecks
    A little more kind of whorey
    A lot more glittery, less circumspect
    Even downright tawdry
    With me left alone among the dust
    That will become of all of us
    Blood on the pages of my books
    Luck and death walk hand in hand
    No one ever left me so shook
    There are only two rhythms, I tried to tell you
    The beating heart and a rolling train
    Only two gifts I had to give you
    A red, red rose and a bed inside the falling rain
    Now again I’m just another person
    I can never be
    You and me and baby would make three
    All I ever wanted, she said once that very first last night
    Is for you to marry me
    Come on, he said, as he bent down to pick her up off the floor
    Let me carry thee
    Let me carry thee

   

    O, Mattie Ready, you wanted a song
    But I can’t say much
    I didn’t stay that long
    Before we even started
    I was already wrong
    I would make things all right
    Only I’m way too gone
    Ah,  but, hey, Mattie Ready, I wrote you a song