Mall Rats

(album: Playing Pretend In The Interim - 2020)

Cherry-colored rubble at my feet
Where monument of man admits defeat
This building used to be so tall
A place that seemed to have it all now, this
Walking through the doors no longer there
Finding dinosaur bones in the square
Used to look up and see the sky
Where the ceiling meets my eye
And now it's tarpaulin just sagging under
The weight of water

Why
Why do I
Fill my life with things
The happiness that brings
Is just so fleeting and small
I used to walk these hallways
Needing so much always
Underneath I'm just a hollow
Girl after all

Hotdog stands where mice are running free
Dusty foodcourt tables for nobody
Fluorescent lights are looking sad
Buzzing along to the same ballad I wrote
Mannequins all lined up in a row
Naked and discarded long ago
I saw the ghost of a younger me
Projected as an old movie
In the abandoned cinema
Up there at level 3

Why
Why do I
Fill my life with things
The happiness that brings
Is just so fleeting and small
I used to walk these hallways
Needing so much always
Underneath I'm just a hollow
Girl after all

Coin-operated carousel
Frozen in time, no personnel
Floorboards collapsing
Pinball machines in wait
It's too late

Why
Why do I
Fill my life with things
The happiness that brings
Is just so fleeting and small
I am mourning former glory
Lost within the story
Underneath I'm just a hollow
Girl after all