Evelyn McHale - Parenthetical Girls

When you got crippled by that car

When we was martyred monthly, and scarred by the way that we are

We nearly broke our mother’s heart

Stay close and pray that she never knows how we both fell apart

Sure, we were cynics from the start

Spellbound, still safe as houses, now pending me down for your hearts

And we never meant you any harm

And still though we thought not to be caught, how the thought made me hot

And sure, we looked lonesome from afar

Hateful and hollow, smug and smart, well don’t we look the part

Sweetheart, remembered for your art

Train those charms for the charts and we’ll be stars just the way that we are

And how do we simply carry on?

Sweet mess with wrists gone lifeless, save one tacky tryst on that lawn

How long must we be strung along?

And my own dying will be undone by the sum of one’s song

So you got crippled by that car

No longer martyred monthly, though scarred by the way that we are

Sweetheart, those sycophants ain’t far

Train those drones by the stones and we’ll be stars just the way that we are