The Damage - Rodney Crowell

So you found me at the end of my life

By the bend in the river at dawn

Have you come to my aid, are there deals to be made

Red lines in the sand to be drawn

Now that you’re here, pray tell me, my dear

Why it is you’ve come to my door

By virtue of sin, should I let you in?

I can’t say you’ll suffer no more

So they tied you to the stake in your heart

And they taught you to treasure the pain

To keep you in place they lied to your face

And bought you with measured disdain

And now that you’ve seen your part in the dream

You’ll need to be lost to belong

The story that ends before it begins

Means nothing is written in stone

Once there was a time I might have

Been for you a guiding light

Cross my heart and hope to die

A thousand needles in my eye

The damage is already done

When it’s over as soon it must be

Please mention my name to the wind

The trouble I see for you and for me

Is nobody wins in the end

I was once as young and wild

As you, my dark-eyed woman-child

How I spend my days in dread

Is how it is I’ve made my bed

I can’t teach or preach or reach

Beyond this bell we both know well

The damage, the damage

The damage is already done