Pigeons - Bill Callahan

Well, the pigeons ate the wedding rice

And exploded somewhere over San Antonio

I picked up the newlyweds and asked them

Where they wanted to go

They said «We don’t care, we don’t know, anywhere, just go»

Ever since I’d gotten married I started working weddings

Driving this long white limo

They’d had their ceremony in Brackettville

At that phony Alamo

We were 30 miles from the border of Mexico

Well, they’re in the back laughing about some uncle named Jack

Who got too drunk, and during his speech

The tears started to flow

Well, they seemed like a match

So I stopped looking for cracks in their road and just drove

Outside of Concan, the groom noticed the gold band on my left hand

And said «You got any advice for us, old man?»

Well, I thought for a mile as I drove with a smile

And I said, «When you are dating you only see each other

And the rest of us can go to hell

But when you are married, you are married to the whole wide world

The rich, the poor

The sick and the well

The straights and gays

And the people that say 'We don’t use those terms these days'

The salt and the soil»

After I’d said my piece

We drove on in silence for a spell

How my words had gone over, well, I couldn’t tell

Potent advice or preachy as hell

But when I see people about to marry

I become something of a plenipotentiary

I just think it’s good, as you probably can tell

When two atoms from the Big Bang

Get back together with the old gang

I drop them at a fancy dancy boutique hotel

And I drive off alone, but I’m not alone

Sincerely, L. Cohen