Geraldine - Simon Joyner

Listen all your lovers
And would be lovers to my tale
The moral of the story is not hidden
Though there are some lies
Along the way to disguise the details
The broad stroke of this picture
Shall render it's true meaning
I first collided with Geraldine
On a Tuesday I believe
It was so very long ago
Still I remember
She just drifted by my window
While I was pretending to be me
Not yet realizing
I was already forever changed
By seeing her
Into the cafe on the street
Where the faux French
Girls fake their slang
While trying to sink
Their teeth into each other
And all of them so dainty
They must fan themselves all day
Claiming the breath of the walking
Deathly homesick G I
Sufferers
Geraldine sat alone of course
Nobody knew her name
But I watched her from
A field of wallflowers
I can't remember why I ever started hanging
Around that place
All anybody ever did was
Dream of dreary California
The second time I saw Geraldine
She asked me for a light
She was trying to read a map
In a shattered doorway
I asked where she was running to
Or from or was it who
She asked if I was talking back
Or moving forward
Soon we were doing everything
We could do to fall in love
We tumbled from the trees into the water
For awhile we were as close
As the light bulb and the moth
Bouncing off a wall as it grew hotter and hotter
But one day I was tempted
By a fleeting song I heard
Whispered from the mouth of a passing stranger
Who said everything happens
For a reason and I deferred
Not yet realizing
I was already very much in danger
The walls were yellow and thin
And there was no window I could open
And she just laughed into her pillow
Until she cried
And because it was a loathsome thing
I did it once again
With a mirth that was disposable
And a lament I couldn't hide
When the stranger disappeared
I couldn't stomach my face
What will I do now
That I have betrayed Geraldine
I cowered through the market
And purchased every angry grape
And made a wine so bitter
Even the drunkards appeared clean
I woke up on a Sunday
And Geraldine was boiling milk
You've been far away
She said as if convincing me
I am further still I said
Than you may really want to know
She raised a finger to her lips to say
I should be listening
I've been where you stand she said
Once I was woeful and careless
But I believe everything
Happens for a reason
Well there it is again I thought
And ready to confess
But she said
Only the guilty are ever really innocent
But she said
Only the guilty are ever really innocent