Robert Wakefield - A Year Later and Coffee Never Tasted So Bitter Lyrics

The side interstate's flood of cars all pass along
Taking less than a thought and then they're gone
It's forty-six degrees as I sit at the table out here
But still not cold enough to reminisce one way or another
I sip on peppermint as I try to stomach tonight
And every other darkened day since our final fight

I blinked, and suddenly on me my aiding armies turned
That night when behind my back, my whole world burned
And when I looked back there she was long gone
As I sat in the rain, drenched and drowning on her front lawn
The empress deserted her kingdom, the citizens evacuated
When I woke the next morning, I saw everyone but me had made it

Daunting empress, greatest beauty in the world so fair
How many bricks of gold can you buy with one blonde lock of hair?
How many kings have you tortured in your lair before me?
Of what value is this one cord I hold out to thee?
Is it true, of your voice, you enchanted hundreds before I?
In the face of your beauty is there anything that could ever die?

Beneath your tree of ornaments, I sat and waited on you
Struck by the mahogany of your eyes and your love so blue
Her Majesty, I waited on and courted on thee for so long
And over a thousand days I wrote on each for you a song
To soothe and to stroke you, love, to bring you into my reach
But matters of love and war are always too soon to teach

As a simpleton seated at your chess board, I played your game
I lost the battle and lost the war, but you were not to blame
Matters of love and inexperience cannot be learned in a single day
Though matters of love and experience can be taught in a day
I was playing for keeps, and, we know, as were you
When I saw that I had the lead, I knew it was too good to be true

As a beggar brandishing street clothes, I offered you my only nickel
And as I emptied my pockets for you, the dust would just trickle
Still you took me into your palace, you took me for a time
You had me feast with you, eat and drink your love like wine
And now, back on the street, I am withered and starving
For I've only ever been destitute and broke in your economy

Coming to your throne I crawled, and going away I whimper
As you shout, "Get out of here now before I call the dog catcher!"
You dropped your diamond goblet and it shattered to pieces
For me your robes once fell, into just a pile and stack of creases
Now I am returned to the hell I sought shelter in you from
Out of heaven I'm finding my way back crumb by crumb

Through the sea you were to me once a great beacon
Shining gold and strong when the sun would weaken
In dreams I see you, beckoning me to come home still
Though you and I both know well that I never will
So, I remain lost at sea, crashing upon the rocks
Searching eternally for those forsaken docks

You return now in your car to those vast interstate dreams
Your purring engine and your tank holding eternities as it teems
Somewhere and someday I am there, though lost but never found
I'll wait in that container, but not contained, 'til you come around
Somewhere you still have part of me apart from me under a lock
Hidden long ago, far away, in the desert burrowed under a rock