4th Time Around - Chris Whitley

When she said,

«Don't waste your words, they’re just lies,»

I cried she was deaf.

And she worked on my face until breaking my eyes,

Then said, «What else you got left?»

It was then that I got up to leave

But she said, «Don't forget,

Everybody must give something back

For something they get.»

I stood there and hummed,

I tapped on her drum and asked her how come.

And she buttoned her boot,

And straightened her suit,

Then she said, «Don't get cute.»

So I forced my hands in my pockets

And felt with my thumbs,

And gallantly handed her

My very last piece of gum.

She threw me outside,

I stood in the dirt where ev’ryone walked.

And after finding I’d

Forgotten my shirt,

I went back and knocked.

I waited in the hallway, she went to get it,

And I tried to make sense

Out of that picture of you in your wheelchair

That leaned up against.

..

Her Jamaican rum

And when she did come, I asked her for some.

She said, «No, dear.»

I said, «Your words aren’t clear,

You’d better spit out your gum.»

She screamed till her face got so red,

Then she fell on the floor,

And I covered her up and then

Thought I’d go look through her drawer.