Picking At Scabs

When I heard your voice on the phone
I was more than a little surprised
It’d been a long night of collapsing-building dreams
And I’d barely opened my eyes
The questions you were asking me
Reminded me of when we were together:
How much are you drinking, and how’s your family?
At least you didn’t ask about the weather
My mom, she’s been doing well
Dad’s been getting dizzy
I’m not drinking as much, but not not at all
Such tail-chasing has been keeping me busy
That and picking at scabs to see fresh blood
It’s all right, we can laugh about this stuff
We laughed about the first time we were in bed
And I was such a mess
You knew I wasn’t that drunk
So you asked me if I was religious
It was a decent question, I guess
Though it made me even more nervous
Like you’d invited the Almighty himself
To testify to our congress
In the morning you only had that dress
That you’d worn for the games out on the lawn
I’d say we were both ready to run
Once you put your blue tennis shoes on
Picking at scabs to see fresh blood
It’s all right, you can laugh, but I’ll call your bluff
That time we drove out to the country
‘Cause my folks were draining the pond
And we thought we’d catch a couple catfish
Before they faced their Armageddon
You held the pole and I rowed the boat
And when I brought us back to the bank
My dad showed us how his grandma cleaned ‘em
By nailing their heads to a plank
We were gonna be living high:
Fresh catfish and cottage fries
But we both knew from the first bite
Those fish’s Kool-Aid was laced with cyanide
So putrid it was hard to describe
There wasn’t enough beer in the house
To make it seem like a good time
Or to wash the bitter taste out of our mouths
So we went around the corner to the grocery store
To pick up some more beer and fried chicken
While I was over grabbing a six-pack
You were at the counter being propositioned
In overalls and a motorized cart
He didn’t look like he could do too much harm
But whatever he said about sexing chickens
Made you never want to go back to the farm
Picking at scabs to see fresh blood
It’s all right, you can laugh. That’s about enough
When I heard your voice on the phone
I was more than a little surprised
It’d been a long night of disastrous dreams
And I’d barely opened my eyes
I probably wouldn’t’ve picked up the phone
But I was waiting on a call from a plumber
You still had our old area code
I didn’t recognize your number