“brian epstein’s dead”

i saw blue velvet glasses looking back at me through the window

it was a sunny day in july

the marching band was out of tune

the church bell was broken again

when someone pulled by sleeve n said

“did you hear? brian epstein’s dead”

i’ve been lookin in this window for a while

i put on a suit — new look — for you

we all look like a bunch of yous

less beatnik, more dipshit

where’s the beat that’s gonna last all day?

why you giving ME the funeral bouquet?

i’m not a very sentimental guy

nostalgia’s cheap — you can buy it for a dime in the street

just like you can buy a night — to get away — and beat n beat

but i’ll take two — n pour one out — for that song I wrote

because i knew you were falling — down n out — like everyone does who lives so

on the edge! of things, halfway back on the train

to sign me a deal

and i know you like the glasses — when i put them 

on in the morning

you were folding the sheets into squares and 

ironing my shirt

not how they found you — my shirt in the closet (i took it back when no one was looking) and

the bed all rumpled, you lying wrong way in a suit with the collar undone 

tight, suffocating social collar you tried to shed half your life

but you can’t have both — be accepted and hated in the nation

so i guess that’s why, huh?

i’ve got visions of brian, waking

reflected in my glasses

i wasn’t sure what to say to the kid, just stared for a sec

n then turned back

to look at blue velvet glasses, and — maybe?

to see him reflected there again