Winner Takes All

Listen.

Listen and I’ll try to explain.

I’ll try to explain

a world that’s really nothing new.

Are you puzzled by my memory?

I’m puzzled by the way

she smoked her cigarettes.

I want you to picture this:

a thousand nights have crushed it all

to diamonds.

Or picture this, picture this:

Yeah, a girl has had her ears pinned back,

her face is smiling.

She’s staggering towards the sun.

Don’t go. Don’t go.

Let’s see if she’ll perform a miracle for you.

Don’t go. You and I can

lie about ourselves.

A year from now we’ll be nothing at all.

So picture this: Lost.

Or this: breaking down a barrier

or this: how you and I would fight in Kentish Town.

Her beauty lights up the sky

but now I know it. I know it.

I’m confused. Are you that girl?

Are you the girl

who would say the winner takes it all

and came away with nothing?

That glass is in your hand.

Your smile is a uniform.

We marvel at the pure extremes.

We always did.

You aged better than me

but you got old anyway.

It’s broken sunlight. It’s broken.

Hands, sex, pavilion, sunlight.

Your wounded mother,

your body soft

beyond my fingertips.

Lie to me. Lie to me.

It’s going to last as long as we can speak.