There's only one light on in the house

And that's the light up in the hall

And it's shining on the back of my head

And I'm concentrating hard on the cigarette

To the ashtray from the ashtray back to my lips



So I lean up from my easy chair

I rub my three-day beard

And give that thousand yard stare

As I recall all the time and money we spent

Before I became irrelevant



So the straw dog threw rocksalt

And the precious girl took a bow and walked

As I ran my finger over the screen door

Yeah every kiss has reeked on betrayal

Since my heroine jumped the guardrail

And decided who she wanted to be once more



Now every night I'm paralyzed

By the fear of rope burns and morning light

And the smell of wet cement

Since I became irrelevant



Now memory is just a flash flood

A thick and black sticky mud

And heartache it's like a breaking bone



It was always twelve hours on a missionary line

You think I would've spared some time

But I didn't I never went home



Now it occurs to me like blinds undrawn

Or a bullet from a shotgun

That she knew long ago what it meant

To feel irrelevant



Now I'm always smilin' cyryin'

And hidin' my intent

SInce I became irrelevant