Nothing Takes

Nothing Takes You got a bad light over your bed Makes every pretty thing look half dead You keep your coat on inside the place Like you’re already leaving your own face There was a man with a leather hand Who taught you love like a reprimand Now every room that says your name Starts up burning just the same Nothing takes Nothing stays Nothing comes out clean this way You went walking past the closed-down store Where they used to know what your body was for There’s a payphone dead by the laundromat With a number carved where your name was at You tried the clinic, you tried the law You tried the church with the basement thaw But everybody with a clipboard face Said you were late to your own escape Nothing takes Nothing stays Nothing comes out clean this way Your mother calls when the weather turns Says there’s food downstairs and the porch light burns You let it ring till the room goes flat Then laugh like someone taught you that There’s a boy in the glass with a busted lip There’s a song in his mouth that he can’t unzip You hum one note till your throat goes raw And call it proof that you lived at all Nothing takes Nothing stays Nothing comes out clean this way Nothing takes Nothing stays Nothing comes out clean this way Nothing takes Nothing takes Nothing stays