Unpleasant Breakfast - The Hold Steady

Every morning we burn the bread

Walk it down to the waters edge

See the seagulls eat cigarettes

Check your breath in a spoon

All your stuff in the storage shed

Twisted sheets on the trundle bed

And the anti-psychosis meds

Made you feel all marooned

Last summer at the shore when I was working cleaning carpets

At some hotel that was haunted by some sailor who supposedly was murdered

After losing all his treasure in the harbor

That’s back when I found romance in these ghosts

I was honestly more bothered by the hundred miles of hallways

Than the clanking of the shackles or the shadows in the doorway

And we snuck into the ballroom and made echoes in it’s empty

And I grabbed you and I spun you and we both just started laughing

All the burns on the windowsill

Says she’s crazy about horses still

All these anti-psychosis pills

So much power and grace

Up there on South Ocean View

All the shells made me think of you

We bought into a three for two

And a strawberry shake

First it’s April then it’s August

It’s the cost of doing business

You were scared and over cautious

The whole breakfast was unpleasant

You just can’t keep throwing up and then cover it with sawdust

And expect us not to notice and pretend it didn’t happen

Last summer at the shoreline

When you walked into the water

Went out up to your waistline

And turned back to face the camera

Rolled your eyes back in their sockets

Then you raised your middle fingers

Defiant and undamaged

That’s when I took the picture

And this year we were standing

Looking out off the veranda

You said, «Yeah, I guess it’s pretty

But I’m a shell of what I once was»

That girl in last year’s picture

Is now haunting her own hallways

I no longer see the romance in these ghosts

This coffee’s cold, this toast is gross

I no longer see the romance in these ghosts