Hard Edges - Chris Knight

Lisa used to love to dance

Ever since she was ten years old

Her bare feet raising dust on a yard

Where the grass wouldn’t grow

Slowly spinning round and round

To the music playing in her head

Late at night it could almost drown out

The whiskey on her old man’s breath

The wrecking yards and dingy bars

And abandoned factories

But down among the jagged souls

A ballerina sways unseen

Hard edges hide a tender heart

Silent as a midnight prayer

Hard edges hide the sweetest part

Till you’d never know it’s there

Lisa’s in a club downtown

Where the neon burns till dawn

She calls herself Tina now

But she dances to the same old songs

Slowly spinning round and round

In the smoke and the smell of rye

She takes off all her clothes

So they don’t see down in her eyes

The scarlet rouge and blue tattoos

Are only painted on

But underneath the dark drumbeat

A ballerina dances on

Hard edges hide a tender heart

Silent as a midnight prayer

Hard edges hide the sweetest part

Till you never know it’s there