My Childish Bride

Have you ever seen a map laid flat
Four corners pinned back
All the lines and the legend in black
So clear that you feared it was nearly all in your mind?
And the phrase that fell from her lips
Left a rip from the top of your shoulders to the point of your hip
And the feeling that you get is if God exists he’s really unkind

But it’s not what you want to say when you’re losing
All the meaning’s lost in the choosing:
The right side, the wrong side, the side that’s been winning
Forget the words, look back to the beginning

My childish bride, oh how I, miss your face
Sometimes, I see my life slip by across your face

There’s an ocean on land. There’s a plan. There’s a plan
There’s a fifty-foot tower running power over sand
There was a city on a hill. It was a thrill but the lights are all gone
Now we stare at each other like a sister to a brother, like a pusher to a shover
Like a secret to a cover, like a lover to a lover under covers with the stereo on

But it’s not what you said to me when you were leaving
Oh this mass of bodies, we’re heaving the right way, the wrong way, the way that they taught us
Forget your words, remember they got us

My childish bride, oh how I, miss your face
Sometimes, I see my life slip by across your face

Tell me are you real? Do you feel?
Do you steal these moments you reveal with those eyes that can’t conceal?
Were you wronged?
Was your song just some clever thing that you made up?
‘Cause the words are just right and I could listen all night
I could whisper. I could bite. I could write. I could write. I could sing. I could cling
There’s not a single thing I’d ever give up

But it’s not what you meant to me when you were leaving
Oh this mass of bodies all heaving the right way, the wrong way, the way that they taught us
Forget yourself, remember they bought us

My childish bride, oh how I, miss your face
Sometimes, I see my life slip by like a taste of death