Cautionary Tale Lyrics

Cautionary Tale

I won't, with your girdles and hose,

And your men slow as bears

I'll be your cautionary tale

Blank space, white noise, go til the paint runs dry

When it doesn't work sometimes you know but you don't know why

Yellow jumping, blue going, it comes together then it's there

It takes time, it's not fast, no you don't get a hit fast on that

And I'm thinking, So you fail—why don't you have a good time?

I don't know, the painting rests, won't end til it stops asking questions

Fine sweets,

You're a spoiled girl.

You want it all ways

But I won't...

How annoying, I keep saying things are like other things

There seems no help for it, the light work of a poet

Do you have many defenses—ha!—can you ever have enough?

Observing from my high cliff, the wind is fierce the coast is rough

And memories of loneliness, the loneliness of being born

Trial and error, watchful sight, the years it took to get it right

And I drank

Til my face was blue

Wouldn't you?

You think you can? It's a tough life

Not for the faint of heart.

What you look at hard looks hard back at you

With judgement and pity—can your soul bear such scrutiny?

Everything seemed like something else, bits of the world slipped into place

One has fight but is full of fear, one has none but is brave

Who would you rather sit beside, which one will take you by the hand?

What can't but must I recognize, everywhere my thoughts grow wild and

What of these others, these serious ones? Listen, we did our best

Acts of failure and of trust, stars without light hold the others up

Still I sat

At the feet of men

Fair witness

But I won't, with your girdles and hose

And your men full of air

I'll be your cautionary tale

for Joan Mitchell, Elizabeth Bishop, Fanny Howe, final verse quotes from Love and I