Mike Mangione

Lyrics

A Requiem For The Trash: Damnatio Memoriae

I don’t remember when you left
I’ll admit those days were miles from sober
I was not myself and so I’ll share the blame
But no one told me the eleventh hour had come and passed

So you should have kissed me one last time
I wish you had hovered over me
And even if I had turned away
You should have held me a little longer that day

For the night is lonesome enough
And what are mornings made but for mourning?
When at dawn I dreamt life was a breaking wave:
We suffer upon the shore before rolling back to the sea

And the shore that breaks all form
Is the same shoreline that shapes each beginning
And when I awoke your side of the bed was made
But you were long gone as if on the ebb tide of the sea

Never mind the garbage you left behind
Forget the direction you’re traveling
Most haunting has been the silence of solitaire
And that to you I could become as light as nothing at all

And the garbage dump is nearly full
And your closet is all but empty
And though I still have some pictures of you on the wall
Your beauty has dimmed and your smile has lost its bite

As if a requiem for the trash
Remembrances linger casting long shadows
Just like your side of the bed still accosts to your warmth
Yet, the dead can never rise again and your side of the bed shall, forever, remain unmade