A story about a man who meets a woman hitchhiking and falls in love. While they have a lot of fun together, he soon realizes that it can’t last, but he can’t bring himself to let go. The song is riddled with metaphors that speak volumes about the ephemerality of everything in life.
I was on the side of the road
Shiny traffic beetling by
She picked up a box of my clothes
Offered me a wash and a ride
We collected clovers in a park
Threaded them through our little fingers
She pulled up her shirt and showed me the mark
Where her father’s snow white knuckle lingered
And I say now what I said then
Please let me forget you
In some hot one gas station town
Please let me forget you
We came up with names for our kids
Though we’d only met an hour before
Names with an eastern european fit
Frederick, Casimir, and Isidore
At a seaside town we picked at our lunch
Talking of family, the books that we’d read
Back in the car, too nervous to touch
She emptied a bottle of water on my head
And I say now what I said then
Please let me forget you
In some hot one gas station town
Please let me forget you