Elephant - Jason Isbell

 

When you are happy you enjoy the music. But when you are sad you understand the lyrics.

Beautiful poem .. Not just for anyone who has witnessed someone lose their life to Cancer.

She said Andy, you're better than your past
Winked at me and drained her glass
Cross-legged on a barstool, like nobody sits anymore
She said "Andy you're taking me home"
But I knew she planned to sleep alone
I'd carry her to bed, sweep up the hair from her floor
If I'd fucked her before she got sick I'd never hear the end of it
She don't have the spirit for that now
We drink our drinks and laugh out loud
Bitch about the weekend crowd
And try to ignore the elephant somehow
Somehow

She said Andy, you crack me up
Seagram's in a coffee cup
Sharecropper eyes, and the hair almost all gone
When she was drunk, she made cancer jokes
Made up her own doctors' notes
Surrounded by her family, I saw that she was dying alone
So I'd sing her classic country
Songs and she'd get high and sing along
She don't have much voice to sing with now

We burn these joints in effigy and cry about what we used to be
And try to ignore the elephant somehow, somehow
I've buried her a thousand times, given up my place in line
But I don't give a damn about that now
There's one thing that's real clear to me: No one dies with dignity
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
Somehow
Somehow

 -- Jason Isabell.