Painting Her Fingernails

(album: Great American Saturday Night - 2020)

She's painting her fingernails waiting for something to happen
Listening to love songs and watching the clock on the wall
She could fix a cheese sandwich but someone might ask her to dinner
So, she's painting her fingernails waiting for someone to call

There's a torn, yellowed photograph stuck in the edge of the mirror
By the Raggedy Ann doll she played with when she was a child
There's a top dresser drawer filled with jewelry, pills, and old letters
And she's painting her fingernails dreaming of Paul Newman's smile

On her desk is the macrame she started back last December
And the bright gilded Christmas card he sent her three years ago
So she stretches her legs in an exercise she's been neglecting
Painting her fingernails hoping that grey doesn't show

In the fridge there's what is left of last Wednesday night's candle light dinner
On her neck is the love mark he left her to prove he was there
And she should call the dentist and take her red coat to the cleaners
But she's painting her fingernails wondering if anyone cares

Then it dawns on her the telephone just might be out of order
So she picks it up, hears the tone and sets it down again
Hell, there's lots of other men
And if she has to she can always call a friend

She undresses seductively in front of Johnny Carson
And smiles goodnight to the bullfighter there on the wall
And she crawls into bed knowing that this time tomorrow
She'll be painting her fingernails waiting for someone to call
She'll be painting her fingernails waiting for someone to call