Burning Herself - Harry Chapin

I guess she had to be

I was angry (you were blind)

Because I could not see

I saw only what her cigarettes had done to her skin

I should have known the outside world

Would reveal what was within

She was burning herself

And her hair was filled with ashes

She was burning herself

And her life becomes a flame

She was burning herself

And the flame became her passion

She was burning herself

And her passion

Her passion was her pain

She was trusting (you could have saved her too)

All hope had passed for her

I was lusting (and she gave to you)

That’s all I asked for her

The marks upon her body

And the marks upon her mind

I could have erased them

If I’d only taken the time

I never saw her do it

I only saw the scars

I never could imagine

What would make her go that far

I wondered

Was she driven by desperate need to feel

To find out she was living

To discover life was real

Or was it that the pain

Slicing through her like a knife

Was easier to take

Than the emptiness of life?

Had a strange sense of drama

Caught her in a role

Or was she trying to cauterize

The chancres on her sole?

I don’t know

I don’t know

I don’t know…