Lyric Player Piano

(For Tom O. and Kurt V.)

Play me like a player piano
roll me from the cornersof your dark and dusty shadows

Like a player piano,
I sit useless
most of the time

The bar gets darker
it swallows up the scarlet
The barkeep s looking thin
We sit together
until only the piano
of the player remains

Tell me why you won t keep it
Tie me up in a shoe-string box
She don t keep it if
she don t need it

Get me out of the deep end
my legs are dangling over the roof

The room gets brighter
when I can see inside her
when I can turn the switch
But she s so together
I can do the damage and
she can manage the flames