Everything I Touched Caught Fire

The tender breathing belly of an orange under-cloud
 the scrutiny of a streetlamp over me
 Drew a breath of smoke from the heavy autumn air
 The tender breathing belly of an orange under-cloud
 the scrutiny of a streetlamp over me
 Drew a breath of smoke from the heavy autumn air
 just outside the courthouse finally free
 Pawned a driftwood clarinet and a silver chain I had
 bought a greyhound ticket heading west
 Underneath the blanket of a lost and found box jacket
 My head against the window trying to rest
 Gonna scar my face
 in a different place
 or maybe wear my hat down low
 Pull a stick-up job
 on some five and dime
 Keep slithering town to town
 I shuffled along the shoulder of an unmarked road
 stopped to catch my breath outside Des Plaines
 slipped into a Laundromat to grab some baggy clothes
 then slept out on the ashtray by the lake
 The very next evening in some half-deserted bar
 some black-eyed Molly bought me watered drinks
 a couple hours later, swapped stories in her kitchen
 while waiting for leftovers to reheat
 Gonna change my ways
 Try and be some place
 Gonna fight the urge to go
 Find an honest job
 at some nine to five
 and maybe stick around
 Early the next morning,
 she called a friend of her late husband's
 a foreman at a plastics factory
 Got me some shit job for under the table cash
 just until I got back on my feet
 I could picture Molly through two black eyes crying
 even though I hadn't wronged her yet
 Every time I'd ever managed landing on my feet
 I'd be looking for a cozy place to sit
 Cut my fingers trimming flash, burned both of my hands
 the foreman came to ride me about the rate
 The hopper wound up jammed.
 I over-filled the press.
 The foreman sent me home for the day
 I couldn't face Molly, so I walked around for hours
 before I started fixing to leave
 a day or two later, I read in some paper
 about a fire at that factory
 Gonna scar my face
 in a different place
 or maybe wear my hat down low
 Pull a stick-up job
 on some five and dime
 Keep slithering town to town