Marlene On The Wall

Suzanne Vega

In the dimming diamonds
Scattering in the park
In the tickling
And the trembling
Of freeze tag
In the dark
We play that we're actors
On a movie screen
I will be Dietrich
And you can be Dean
You stand
With your hand
In your pocket
And lean against the wall
You will be Bogart
And I will be Bacall
And we can only say yes now
To the sky, to the street, to the night
Slow fade now to black
Play me one more game
Of chivalry
You and me
Do you seewhere I've been hiding
In this hide-and-seek?
We go to the playground
In the wintertime
The sun is fading fast
Upon the slides into the past
Upon the swings of indecision
In the wintertime
Wintertime
Wintertime
We can only say yes now
To the sky, to the street, to the night
We can only say yes now
To the sky, to the street, to the night
Even if I am in love with you
All this to say, what's it to you?
Observe the blood, the rose tattoo
Of the fingerprints on me from you
Other evidence has shown
That you and I are still alone
We skirt around the danger zone
And don't talk about it later
Marlene watches from the wall
Her mocking smile says it all
As the records the rise and fall
Of every soldier passing
But the only soldier now is me
I'm fighting things I cannot see
I think it's called my destiny
That I am changing
Marlene on the wall
I walk to your house in the afternoon
By the butcher shot with the sawdust strewn
"Don't give away the goods too soon"
Is what she might have told me
And I tried so hard to resist
When you held me in your handsome fist
And reminded me of the night we kissed
And of why I should be leaving
Marlene watches from the wall
Her mocking smile says it all
As the records the rise and fall
Of every man who's been here
But the only one here now is me
I'm fighting things I cannot see
I think it's called my destiny
That I am changing
Marlene on the wall