Marbles

(album: Tindersticks - 1993)

Her hair cut, she looked pudgy and made-up
In that dress growing ever tighter
We were saddened the lengths she had gone to
To appear more attractive
In the process losing something
We never knew but still missed

You knew you were lost as soon as you saw her
You saw your life as a series of complicated dance steps
Impossible to learn, they had to come naturally
Together you squirmed and wriggled
And I could only jerk along behind

They're going to hurt you
They always will

She was now with me inside of you
And I could only stare wide-eyed
As everything closed in around the three of us
Things you never saw, talking of the power in rescue
The blood rushing through our bodies
And it was good

They're going to hurt you
They always will

She opened the door with face bruised and swollen
Before we knew, pushed, falling down curved stairs
Our message lost and our plans forgotten
Surrounded by men in suits and black shiny shoes
Moving in, kicking, stamping
Blank expressionless faces
A handful of marbles thrown at a dustbin
Then release, then release

They're going to hurt you
They always will

Being a Northern town, there was an amazing road of stepping stones arraying the southern slope
I got out in the last few seconds of consciousness
Looking for those junctions, for the one day, and then those distant ocean plains, close to the bay of a desert island
I saw you in a tin bath, red water
The ones who'd been to the washing room to do their laundry wanted to see the mysterious tarn
I never believed in you, or what you pretended to stand for
But wouldn't actually want to see the ship wrecked
I just had to go
They gained