Better - Caracara

Lips were painted cherry red

And there are fossils in my head

You were young and full of dread

Bathsheba of the strip mall set

We knew vampires in our time

Cutting in the bathroom line

Looking bored and rolling eyes

Ain’t pharmaceutically inclined

Latchkey love and stolen pills

Looking for a cheaper thrill

Retrofitted Greek myth swill

And in your hair a daffodil

We could not have foreseen such light

In your hazy, basement eyes

Headphones in and thrift store leather

Ask me why I care

I thought you knew me better than that

You will be missed when you go

If you ever leave at all

Hedonism’s restrained thaw

Is flooding down and clenching jaws

Are you good to drive?

You’re in a state

Hometown script is «I'm okay

I’m sticking to the old highway»

Suburban cops with empty plates

There’s a fire that burns today

It’s raging under K and A

I look back at descending wraiths

And remnants of the failed state

I knew you then and I know you now

But at some lost point you became un-tethered

Pent up lusts and housing busts

You ask me why I care

I thought you knew me better than that

All I know

You said you’d lay low

Cold halos

You chose your way down

Always so safe

Always, always

I thought you knew me better than that