40 Mark Strasse

Is it all so very simple

And horribly complex?

You suffer in a thimble

And there's nothing coming next



Your mom smokes in the kitchen

Her voice a cutting drone

So creeping out, you pass the bar

Your father's second home

That leaves you on your own



Nights I'd often watch you

Float across the grounds

Out the gate to the motorway

What secrets have you found?



You had to know I wanted

Something from you then

Too young to know just what it was

Something more than a friend

Is that you at the end?



Where you play in the street at night

Blown like a broken kite

My girl, you're giving up the fight

Are you gonna let these Americans

Put another dent in your life?



My mother says you're dirty

They're gonna find you dead

But have you got that final chapter

Written in your head?



Cause every single story

Is a story about love

Both the overflowing cup

And the painful lack thereof

You got the heart of a dove



But you play in the street at night

Blown just like a broken kite

My girl, you're giving up the fight

You'll have to lose all them childish notions

If you're gonna let these American boys

Put another dent in your life



You play in the street at night

Blown just like a broken kite

My girl, you're giving up the fight

You'll have to lose all them childish notions

Are you gonna let these Americans

Put another dent in your life?