Red Bandana Blues

I’m leaving, I’m going
I’m fleeing, I’m [bowing] out
Before the digs and little hurts
Turn to hisses and curses

Well I’m staying, ain’t running
I’ll be right here on this porch swing
Swinging till morning
Keeping the hair from my eyes with a ragged red bandana

My finger trace the blue face of your missing mother
Dressed like a Madonna tattooed to your shoulder
Should have known you’re lost and made out of paper
Your mouth was a haiku, so my heart never wavered

Well, I’m staying because I promised, [the costs] of sacrifice
You can go where they only play nice, boy
You can go where they only play nice

You can hurt me, you can hate me
I know we both grope and ache in invisible places within
Buckets echo against the walls of the well but still come up empty

Well I’m sorry, I’m devastated
Then counting the fresh cut grasses and full moons we tasted
Now dreams are choked and finally cry
“Rust awaits us if we don’t make [ ] more of this”

Can’t you see love spurns your timeline full of burns and yellow stains
The tatter one you roll out every time that it rains
Some will blow with the [parlor], some will blow down the rain
Some may lay there like the litter left after [ ] hurricane

But I’m going because it’s over, that much is plain
But you can stay when it starts up again, love
You can say when it starts up again