Ballad for my black pillowcase

I woke early this morning and it’s been a long day.
We bought one hundred beers for to take us away.
They are sleeping in coolers where the peasants grow hay
Yeah they’re waiting for ten on the clock.

A Persian cat hisses at one of my shoes.
Or else at the laces, or my deepening bruise
That darkens my eyes when they’re reading the news
Of black water in daytime in May.

Most days I do feel like there is no one here.
All the men are hollow and the women so clear
That in truth I am calmer when no one is near
So I frame them up six to a page.

I’ve a friend who is happy just gathering wealth.
He makes bombs and machines of incredible stealth.
All the people that die are just pawns on a shelf
But I believe he can be a good man.

I’ve written some letters and man they’ve been mean.
They were addressed to parents and lovers and kings.
There was blood in the air while I vented my spleen
But I mailed not a single one.

Now I’ll go to a party and it will have hot air
And maybe some girls there with long curly hair
And Lord if one is there I’ll be running in fear
No I can’t see a girl like that.

I have known one before with a soul oh-so-grand.
Redeeming this world was just one of her plans
But I drank and went crazy and was buried in sand
So I don’t talk to her much these days.

Yes and then there was one, Athena in a tower
Where she long studied life to put it in her power.
I drank vodka and smashed up the doors of her shower
And I don’t see her much anymore.

I am spending this summer on a carpeted floor
And I’m waiting to hear just what this life is for
Or I promise that I will head straight for the door
And baby then I will be gone.