Cigarettes and Violets - Jesse Malin

You smell like cigarettes and violets

You invite me in but won’t tell me your name

Your hands held all the aces

Kings and queens but still you lost the game

Messed up like a sunset

Too close to be a star

Messed up like an actor

That got stuck doing porn

Messed up skipping dinner

And living on popcorn

Messed up like a song

Right turn in the wrong lane

A quick fix but all your love’s in vain

Best schools worst grades

Sold out but baby forgot to get paid

Messed up like the father

Who couldn’t see the son

Messed up like an outlaw who blamed it on the gun

Messed up like an in-law

Who did what one might

We’re messed up here tonight

Well there’s cops and shoppers on the hunt

I’m writing in a restaurant

A stranger taking orders asked me what I want

Told the secrets of the hope

It seems

Messed up like a martyr

Straight or on the rocks

Messed up like my mother

Crazy like a fox

Messed up like the sunlight

Too early in my eyes

Messed up like a prizefight

At least you could’ve tried

Messed up like the system

You used to call a sin

Messed up like an earthquake

You couldn’t keep it in

Messed up like a birthday

I can’t recall the date

But you still love to hate