Gardenias and Cigarettes
Water on shingle and vagrant hours
That stumble round this sunstruck town
And white lantern blossoms
With torn off wings
Break from their branches
With pale yearning
Oh my mind came unmoored in the night
You set it adrift
With a kiss that was sweeter
Than anyone else's
That I've known before then or since
Oh gardenias and cheap cigarettes
On your mouth and your fingers I tasted
In the name, on the hands and the back of love
Ships were raised and lovers fought
And the Gods above watched from a ringside box
As cities were wasted to ashes and dust
I saw you go through a low window
By the idle tide of dusk
And I should have seen through those arrows and bows
That even golden apples rust
Oh my mind came unmoored in the night
You set it adrift
With a kiss that was sweeter
Than anyone else's
That I've known before then or since
Oh gardenias and cheap cigarettes
And the ghost of the touch of your fingers