the old girl don’t look herself
i mistook her for someone else
with her powdered face
and piled up hair
she’s wearing lipstick for
the first time
her nails are painted, she looks fine
all dressed up like she’s goin’ somewhere

and all her family come to see her off
folks she ain’t seen hide nor hair
of for years
are all gathered in this room
there’s grandpa bill
he won’t stick around
all his friends are underground
he says he’ll be following them soon

there are flowers everywhere
one by one we all come and stare
and say “that don’t look nothin’
like her at all”
they pulled all her wrinkles out
she always looked like she was worried ‘bout
something big or something small

what do we expect
here to pay our last respects
and all we do is complain
so i get myself a lemonade
in the room next door where the grandchildren are playin’
their childish games

oh audrey, i’m gonna miss you
don’t know where you gone, but
i know this ain’t you
lying in that little box
linda, she agrees
she says “you know mike,
i can’t even grieve no more,”
so i sip my lemonade
and Linda talks

she says “it was only three weeks ago
we were all down at the grand casino
and audrey won three hundred bucks
that was before the doctors got her
i tried but i could not stop her
i knew right then she was out of luck”

now the old girl just don’t look herself
i mistook her for someone else
all dressed up like she was goin’ somewhere

©1999 Mike West

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