Confederate Jasmine - Bill Callahan

Life has given you a gift

May I have it?

Sitting up alone, sipping on writer’s cologne

My wife sleeps well

I should have asked for some loving

In the morning, for sure

When Confederate Jasmine clings to the air

Like a soft note from a dented horn

And Grover counts to fifty

In the other room, sweetly forlorn

But there’s a wolf in my house

Messing up the bed I learned to make in AA

And a frightened child won’t tell the wolf to go away

It brings a smile to the tear in the eye of the shepherd on the hillside

We’ve seen enough wolf for one day

And packs his staff away

The heart of man

Is a fork in the road

That’s where I stand

As the ocean pulls the moon from behind the cloud

Its face makes the wolves howl

Wakes my wife, makes my wife find a towel

She says, «It's late, I’m bleeding»

And we’re making love right now