Father Jack And Mr. T - Augie March

O how many houses have we lived in?

How many still are standing after each and every fall

of you and me,

Brother Lock and Sister Key?

And I would think it funny were it not so wretched

In how it plays out like the cheapest fare

this age adores,

But then what are we, Brother Lock and Sister Key?

Only exile, only separation, only disavowal

when the information comes.

Nobody’s free, Brother Lock and Sister Key.

And do you know how masterful is Brother Lock?

Insinuates himself into each recess and door

To make a lee for Sister Key to marry in once more…

Only spasms of love that get by on memory,

raw passages of a cooked up story, that nobody reads,

and nobody ever will.

Only exile, only separation, only after a while,

when the cheap sensation’s done,

And nobody’s free, Brother Lock and Sister Key…

How’s it to wake to find another tooth is missing,

and vaguely recollect the stone that you’ve been kissing?

How’s it to find you’ve been many years blind

and always leading?

And I would think it funny were it not so jaded,

and I would think it pretty were it never so degraded,

as by verdigris, Brother Lock and Sister Key…

Only exile, only separation, only disavowal

when the information comes,

He’ll put her down, she’ll send him up.

Only spasms of love that get by on memory,

only passages of the same old story, that nobody reads,

and nobody ever will.

Only exile, only isolation, only after a while,

when the cheap sensation’s done,

And nobody’s free, Brother Lock and Sister Key…