Inmates

When you said you loved me, did you really love me?

Or did the words just spill out like drool on my pillow?

Because I was naked when you said those words

But I felt covered in your whispered worship

And as you passed out fast on my shoulder

I imagined a child

Waiting so sad and still for his mom to arrive



Did she leave you an orphan

In that big brown leather chair?

Said, “ Don't you move a muscle, kid

I'll be back in twenty years”

You were scared, you were lonely

But you must've been aware

Life is a series of callouses, this is just another layer

So build them up, tough it out, yeah, that's your skin

Don't let anyone under there



When you said you needed me, did you really need me?

Or was it just someone? Oh, you'd take anything

Am I first on that list of yours, or am I second, or third?

So who's that ahead of me, some harlot from Pittsburgh?

Or Detroit, Santa Fe, or San Diego?

I know you're so alone

But how much affection does one guy really need?



Did you date a lot in high school?

Were you always chasing girls?

Couldn't you find some young valentine

To steal your heart for good?

Were you content, or contemptible?

Are your memories pleasant?

Or is it a string of endless flings of bitter resentment?

Seems that what you want and what you need doesn't mean a thing

We're just here for the taking



When you said you'd hurt me, did you think you hurt me?

Are you really that cocky? Oh, what a heartbreaker!

Well, I've got my armor, yeah, I've been through some battles before

And I met your old girlfriend, she said, “Baby, don't bother”

She told me you told her you'd hurt her

Funny, how familiar

So how much of this relationship was rehearsed?



Did you act out as a child?

Were you always crying wolf?

Attention starved, you tried too hard

Just to get someone to look

Now you're the wolf in second-hand clothing

I'm the sheep in a pleated skirt

It's an awkward form of payback

But if it works for you it works

It's that I recognize your off-white lies

Still, I lie beside you, and that's what really hurts



When you said you'd leave me, well, why haven't you left me?

What are we still doing here, so desperate for company?

There's a greyhound on Jackson Street

There's an airport in Council Bluffs

Hell, there's a car in the driveway; fifty ways to get lost

But as I hold you and listen to you sleeping

I'm starting to wonder if you really believe

That you'd ever really leave



Would you leave me an orphan

In that big brown leather chair?

The one you've lugged around from town to town

For all these years

It's the trophy of your childhood

Like a shark's tooth or gator skin boots

But this one holds you prisoner; it holds me prisoner too

What we need to set us free is to let go of each other

Let go of everything



When I said I loved you, it was because I loved you

When I said I needed you, well, I really need you

Yeah, I guess you hurt me

For once you're a man of your words

Well, guess what? I'm leaving

I can't be your prisoner



I won't