Matches to Paper Dolls

[Verse 1]
I changed the locks
But your key, your key’s still working
You can’t train a moth I guess
Oh, each beast gets her burden
So we circle this old flame
Too much at stake
But too late to change
My nerves are shot
My reserves exhausted
It’s a tired plot, but we bought it
Now we’re lost
Between love and cholera
Saccharine read — such a sentimental novel
Give you cavities if it doesn’t drive you to the bottle
As for me, I’ll take another kerosene
If you’ve got it something harder
Built like a moth you see
And I still get chills when you talk to me
But the years pass by now
In twos and threes
These thrills ain’t as cheap
As they used to be

[Chorus]
If you’re asking, I can’t say no
Just one more chapter
Our book won’t close
And I know it’s madness
To play these odds
It’s like giving matches to paper
To paper dolls
I know it’s madness, I know

[Verse 2]
Tried sweet talk, tried dynamite
But I sleepwalk, back to the battle site
Fight fire with fire but the fire won’t fight
We just fly these circles like tired kites
You flash some fang
And I bat my lashes
And we’re back again
No end to this game with matches
We’ve been lovers and strangers and friends who get angry
Made mistakes and amends and brief moments of magic
We forgive and forget and give in to attraction
This whole thing depends on amnesia and magnets
I’d be leaving for good, I’d be looking for better
But I got this broken habit I keep gluing back together
The fervor the fire the feathers, this fever defies measure
And good sense won’t venture, where the moth won’t let it

[Chorus]
If you’re asking, I can’t say no
Just one more chapter
Our book won’t close
And I know it’s madness
To play these odds
It’s like giving matches to paper
To paper dolls
I know it’s madness, I know