Miss Bottom Of The Hill

(album: Archive Series Volume No. 3 - 2017)

So Miss Bottom of the Hill what do you want?
The sun is shining and your lovers always lose you in the dark
And they were all chosen to remember how the sparrows hit the window
That you closed to keep the cat out of the yard

And like your body being dragged behind the moon
You bring a memory of your mother like the money in your shoe
And how her penetrating wisdom, her bulletproof religion
Always rip you like a wool off of the loom

You floated farther than you ever meant to go
And only now see you are naked when the wind began to blow
There's no advice that you've been missing
No trespass unforgiven
Just a river with no pity for your boat

I've come to know that I was stealing all your kisses on the evening
The dogs were loose and lying on the street
You've learned to blend into the choir
How to hold your hand in fire
And what to say instead of what you mean
But the trouble it saves for just how hard it can be

You met the women gluing jewels onto a crown
You know men hiding in the city and their way of being found
And you got nothing on your shoulders
Still there's nothing too much colder
Than a rubble of a house that's falling down

Like a baby cryin 'til it falls asleep
The autumn's over by the time you count the color of the leaves
You're painting buzzards on the ceiling
Falling faithless at the healing
With your friends around you wailin on their knees

And I've come to know that I was stealing all your kisses on the evening
The fog had swallowed everything but us
You've learned to balance on the cable
Drink us all under the table
And who to try instead of who you trust
With a hand on your heart that threw you under the bus

So Miss Bottom of the Hill, what do you want?
The sun is shining and you cleaned your pretty pistol of a heart
But when you talk about tomorrow
When to beg and when to borrow
Try to hit the ground before you hear the shot

And like a fish too deep and drifting in the sea
You've grown accustomed to the blindness looking up and anxiously
But there's a stone inside your pocket while you're plowing through the market
But you know even the time it takes ain't free

I've come to know that I was stealing all your kisses on the evening
The stars were barely hanging in the sky
You've learned to eat when you're not hungry
How to laugh when nothin's funny
And what to get instead of getting by
But oh, how it changes with the passing of time

You heard so many voices hidden in the wind
See all the children of the world and how its fingers reach for them
Two branches tired of their bending
I don't see our story ending
Quite as clean as it was easy to begin

Like a hole that let the fox under the fence
You've got no solace and no sanctuary you can recommend
Begging for mercy at the bedside
We got frozen in the headlights
But our kind of mercy never made much sense

I've come to know that I was stealing all your kisses on the evening
But both were disappearing in the waves
You've learned to lead the one you follow
How to spit out what you swallow
And when to hand instead of give away
That secret of ours is one I'll take to the grave

So Miss Bottom of the Hill what do you want?
The sun is shining and I think you want me more often than not
But like your father in the garden
I won't finish what I started
'Til you bill me for the flowers I forgot

And like a curse too old for anyone to care
You said to meet you on the mountain cause you never make it there
And sucked your thumb along the highway
Proudly promising that one day
I'd miss the way we tumbled down the stairs

And I've come to know that I was stealing all your kisses on the evening
The car was gently gliding off the road
You've learned to rise above your body
How to never say you're sorry
And where to go instead of going home
With the light by the bed and all the clothes you've outgrown