Unpleasant Breakfast

(album: Open Door Policy - 2021)

Every morning we burn the bread
Walk it down to the waters edge
See the seagulls eat cigarettes
Check your breath in a spoon

All your stuff in the storage shed
Twisted sheets on the trundle bed
And the anti-psychosis meds
Made you feel all marooned

Last summer at the shore when I was working cleaning carpets
At some hotel that was haunted by some sailor who supposedly was murdered
After losing all his treasure in the harbor
That's back when I found romance in these ghosts

I was honestly more bothered by the hundred miles of hallways
Than the clanking of the shackles or the shadows in the doorway
And we snuck into the ballroom and made echoes in it's empty
And I grabbed you and I spun you and we both just started laughing

All the burns on the windowsill
Says she's crazy about horses still
All these anti-psychosis pills
So much power and grace

Up there on South Ocean View
All the shells made me think of you
We bought into a three for two
And a strawberry shake

First it's April then it's August
It's the cost of doing business
You were scared and over cautious
The whole breakfast was unpleasant

You just can't keep throwing up and then cover it with sawdust
And expect us not to notice and pretend it didn't happen

Last summer at the shoreline
When you walked into the water
Went out up to your waistline
And turned back to face the camera

Rolled your eyes back in their sockets
Then you raised your middle fingers
Defiant and undamaged
That's when I took the picture

And this year we were standing
Looking out off the veranda
You said, "Yeah, I guess it's pretty
But I'm a shell of what I once was"

That girl in last year's picture
Is now haunting her own hallways

I no longer see the romance in these ghosts
This coffee's cold, this toast is gross
I no longer see the romance in these ghosts