If you have ever fallen in love with someone whose initials you carved into what you thought was a tree, only to find out later it was a rotten log... If you've ever participated in the skeleton circus, only to wake up in the hospital after overdosing in a bad word paradise...

"Cold Dead Night" was written for you.

Thanks for listening.

Cold Dead Night

It's a cold dead night
down by the water

We're wrapped up warm
and the newspaper said
you'd never repent

It's a cold dead night
down by the water

The fishing boats
are chained to the docks
just like two lovers holding hands,
and the moon is as golden as wine
on a cold dead night
down by the water

She wants to get high
but she lays her head
on my shoulder instead
and we sleep
on a cold dead night

I never want to wake up again!

The circus is in town
all the angels
with crosses tattooed on their wings
sing along with the dogs
limping on wooden legs
we carve our initials
into a rotten log
and throw it on the fire
and watch it burn
all night

It's a cold dead night
down by the water

The skeleton man
breaks all his bones
one by one
and dances with a rope around his neck
so his feet never touch the ground
and goes to sleep
under a blanket of skin
dried in the sun
on a cold dead night
down by the water

I never want to wake up again!

Paper slippers
and drops of blood,
my clothes are torn
and I'm strapped to this
hospital bed
I lost my mind
on a cold dead night
I'll be leaving it behind
this morning,
but you can tell the nurses
on the graveyard shift
that I'll be coming back someday
and I won't be sleeping on the street
I don't know where I'm going
as long as it's away
from this bad word paradise,
these sun-tanned antichrists,
these air-conditioned forests
are much too cold
for me

©1999 Nathan Payne