Minstrel

youve got smoke in your soul
right down to the core
a pouring rain night
and a busted crack pipe at the foot of your bed

i quiver like a sack full of coins
on the edge of a ledge in mississippi
i bought you a diamond necklace
down by the bayou

we sold it for a pittance
for the music in our soul was on display
in the dusky bars on the shore
we got our high

adored no more
for the broken undesirable children
all playing cards in the alley behind the hospital
in baton rouge

all the waters lead to crocodiles
and its been so long since weve been home
just traveling on abuse
on the blood of stones

and your thin smile is all that lights our way
mine eyes are cracked and slowly driftin away
no way to stop the pain from stumblin through
these doors of loss and forlorns

like a rose petal highway
we pick up the trash and tie
a yellow sash around an old mans chest
his heart isnt quite as black as his words might suggest

its all or nothing out here on the road
where minstrels ply their trade in exchange for fake gold
just another pair of strangers with love in their hands
just another pair of strangers with nothing but plans

blue jeans painted on my starvin ass
two more bodies bound to the deck and the lash
this time im coming through
this time, i swear im comin true

for you, you spent your years dreaming
with stars in your eyes
you spent your years thinking
id lead you through skies

over the dust and the dirt and the stain
but somewhere, somewhere we lost our way
but i swear to you
ill make it okay

someday soon
ill lead you down that aisle
roses in hand, veiled like the bride
of someone grand

askin for handouts and takeouts
to steal on this road of dreams
its so harsh and real
under bridges and ships and on the decks of pianos

we lost better things
things granted and given so freely
so early, like geese in flight we dropped them swiftly
just eagles on the byway over the mice in the cities

we stole a few emotions
and we gave up decisions
im crying for something to take me home
im dying for dreams to show me the road

that im still breathing and leaning on your shoulder
that youre still thinking, someday, this might be over
for cloud picket fences and for over wrought lawns
for the wishes of ages to be the morning and gone

im wondering if ever the light might shine
through the tarpit of despair weve both sunken into
as cancer erodes and as years implode
our love is forever, im with you right here

like the scenery dont matter
like god might appear
and im sitting by your standing corpse
on planks of oak and boards of loss 

my eyes as dry as the day you died
my hands as empty as the road ahead
just smoke filled nights
full of dreams and dread

somewhere we lost our way
but i swear to you ill make it okay
someday soon ill meet you in that aisle
ready to while away the hours