The woman with the painted eyebrow stare
With crimson rubber lips and copper hair
Clings to her cart down on Pilgrimage Row
And soon she'll roll it where the numbers end
She'll fill it up and roll it back again
Judy or Bridget or
Joan trudges home from her morning retreat
She's got nothing to speak of and no one to meet
But it's not like she made any promises
It's not like she's ever had happiness
Real happiness
And passing through a couple's parting hands
Her memories dance upon their wedding bands
Making it hard to go easy, I know
Remember when he used to call on you
And taught you all the things that lovers do
Back and forth, back and forth
Pinning you down with his capital eyes
As he lapped like a beast at the source of your thighs
Well it's not like you made any promises
It's not like you ever had happiness
Real happiness
And his words are like dollars
What's backing them
If I could leave this city
No lights, no talk, no pity
Just another month
Another year at least
Another pilgrimage
Joan, I know that you're the same as me
We're haunted by the same epiphany
Love is the only thing worth this decay
But nothing changes after twenty-two
Except the way that people look at you
When did I ever get
Old in whose eyes? In whose eyes? In whose eyes?
I will now count the faces that fed me to time
Well it's not like we made any promises
It's not like I'll ever have happiness
Real happiness
Oh, what's happiness?
And his words are like dollars
What's backing them
If happiness was just a pilgrimage