The Ghost of You
High upon a cliff,
In 1927
Rum runners put down roots
For the hair of the dog and a dance
Lonely lady spellbound
Your music was her playmate
Into the night you danced
The lonely lovers dance
In your arms
And under your spell
The garment of your soul was hers
Under summers restless sky
Her betrothed feared
His wife’s cup
Had overflowed with sin
Her tousled hair confessed she would taste of it again
Now the path beside the shore
Only whispers of your name
She walks it in the night
She’ll never be the same
The ghost of you’s as real
As the blood stains on her dress
She feels you fingers on her skin
To God she must confess
The ghost of you is as scrumptious
As the salt sea on you skin
She tastes it like it was yesterday
The dream state she is in.
Bad debts and cheating
Run out of town
Gone without a trace
Your fingers in too many pies
They took you from this place.
And so you left
Without goodbye
No forwarding address
Were they promises or lies
You left her in distress
Never to be seen again
The whites of your dark eyes
They covered their tracks well
You were gone before sunrise
She wanders the road and hits the bars
Begging for news of your return
It’s everyone’s big secret
No one says a word
Now the breeze along the shore
Only hints of your cologne
One breath of it is just enough
She no longer feels alone
The ghost of you’s as sweet
As her finger dipped in honey
In her dreams she feels the heat
and satisfies her longing.
The ghost of you’s as real
As the whiskey on her breath
She rattles on about yesterday
To the corpses on her left.
The nightmare that she never shares
From the darkness of the night
She sees your car go off the cliff
Your headlights take flight
She knows her dream was real
You never will return
Except in her fantasies
Her memories will burn.
Now she sits on the
Bed in the morning
And it’s one more day to hope
To pretend you’ll return
With reality she can’t cope.
If she just keeps asking
The answers will comply
‘Til then she’ll occupy the bar
And sickly wonder why.
Now the path beside the shore
Only whispers of your name
She walks it in the night
She’ll never be the same
And the breeze along the shore
Only hints of your cologne
One breath of it is just enough
She no longer feels alone
Now the ghost of you’s as real
As the wrinkles on her face
She drinks hard to be rid of them
Her skin as white as lace
The ghost of you’s as fresh
As the guitarist on the stage
Her drunken eyes pretend it’s you
Trapped in yesterday’s cage.
Words and music by, Juliet A. Wright
copyright, 2020 (2013) all rights reserved.