HER BITTERNESS

We seat there next to you While you take the bitterness out of her And she takes the sweetness out of you Long conversations life striped And then robed, fixed only to be broken again We seat there with you Watching you squeeze out her bitterness Watching her take from you the sweetness Short conversations life in half notes Sang over broken soft chords A tune of strolls A friend sleeping into drunkenness And we keep the picture of something less A scripture to remind you When you refuse yesterday’s phrase And rush into taking today’s praise We seat there next to you while you take nothing in Nothing gets taken from you, nothing sweet Not even her bitterness will you take She has got you now, all that was sweet about you All that was living that once lived within you The things we liked about you Are within her she has left us the bitterness