Gemini Birthday Song

C
It starts with you
        G                            F
on a mattress in your parents' old room,
                               C
clipping your toenails into the room
                          F
like the room will fade

and you will move
        C
onto other rooms
Em
and you will go
G
to other places.

C
Then the wedding,
               G
Then the woman passed out
         F
in the driver's seat
          C
at the order board at White Castle.
F
We woke her up and she went
C                      Em
'round to the pick up window
             G
like she knew exactly where she was.

C
Then I wept
             G
with my face in your night shirt,
F
trying hard as hell to say
C                         F
"until death separates us,"

                      C
loosening the skin on your breastbone,
E
I painted your nails
G
and you sleep

while I write all this down.

C
There was a moth caught in the soapdish laminated in lye
Am
Will you still remember me well
C                             F
If I don't get to two-o-o-five?
 E                  G
my dead line Gemini

C                                   G
When we're on different sides of the globe
                       F
I thought we'd keep our veins tangled
C
like a pair of mic cables,
F                                      C
And if there ain't enough slack to reach
Em
that we'd solder them together
G
and across oceans they'd stretch.


C                            G
Our faces reflected in separate windshields
F
and all our body hair pricked up
C
an elephant eyelash.
F                                  C
Should we be tempted by thief or saint
E
it seems I leave and you stay
G
to crawl the cage and curse.

C
But don't regret the done dirt,

                G
there is no life plan set,
              F
you just swallow the cold
      C                             F
and follow your breath until death.
                                   C
Now even if the will to sleep persists
          Em                            G
I can't 'cause a harsh cloth, it grazes my blisters.

C
There was a moth caught in the soapdish laminated in lye
Am
Will you still remember me well
C                             F
If I don't get to two-o-o-five?
 E                  G
my dead line Gemini

C                                 G
Today I fell asleep in a bath of hair.
F                                                  C
Hair that once sprouted from my own
F
white wet chalk follicles.
C
I swallow a coal
Em
and follow my breath
G
and I did it with the grapefruit soap

thinking of you.

C                            G
Bathed, shaved, and oiled,
              F                              C
your legs are two skinny dolphins swimming
             F                                       C
between the mattress and the layers of bedding
Em                                  G
turning in your drug dry sleep.
C                          G
When I ask you to kiss my pulse
F                         C
you offer to start the shower.

F                                 C
I want a verb and you give me a noun.
Em                                          G
What do you dream up while I tongue you down?

C
There was a moth caught in the soapdish laminated in lye
Am
Will you still remember me well
C                             F
If I don't get to two-o-o-five?
 E                  G
my dead line Gemini

C
You know my build.

You know my size.
G
The degree to which my eyes
Em
are astigmatic.

• Am
• C
• E
• Em
• F
• G