Life Without Susanna - Rodney Crowell

Life without Susanna

Started when Townes Van Zandt died

From that day on she hid out undercover

Her Percocet and cigarette along for the ride

She made the bed inside her head a shelter

Each new day a sliver through the blinds

I tried tough love, tenderness and anger

But nothing pierced the fortress inside her mind

The first time I saw her she threw me that smile

Pure angel of mercy east Texas style

A poet in gingham, an assassin in jeans

The most near perfect woman I’d ever seen

She was hardly routine

Life without Susanna

Troubles me in ways hard to express

As she withdrew I grew distant and judgmental

A self-sure bastard and a stubborn bitch

Locked in a deadly game of chess

The upside of my status a cut above the rest

The last time I saw her was close to the end

I cried like a baby for the shape I was in

No lipstick or powder to soften the tone

The most worthy opponent I’ve ever known

Was already gone

Life without Susanna

Is something that we all have to face

So welcome to the world as we don’t know it

Big blue knuckleball free floating somewhere out in space

Where life without Susanna is no man’s saving grace

This is life without Susanna and I can’t find my place