Bucket - Greg Brown

Put it in the bucket if the bucket’s there

Throw it in the alley, honey, I don’t care

Stay beneath the covers in your underwear and throw down

Put it in the mail, sail it on the sea

Dress it up and send it to the jubilee —

I got a woman down in Missouri, I’m gonna go down

Take it to the forest and give it a toss

Down in the gully, honey, over in the moss

Without you, babe, I’m a total loss and a loser

Send me an E, call me on the phone

Please don’t leave me here all alone

Morning comes like the twilight zone, I can’t use her

Ain’t it a big one, ain’t it tall

Looks about as high as a prison wall

Up we climb and down we fall together

Over and over and into the blue

We say we are but we’re never through

I’ve got a big bad thing for you forever

Call it impossible, call it a crime

Not kissing you is a waste of time

It doesn’t scan and it doesn’t rhyme without you

Call it a picnic, take it to the park

Meet me at the willow along about dark

The only song I sing like a meadowlark is about you

Fry it up, choke it down, save me some

I’m so happy I must be dumb

A sparrow at your shoes pecking at the crumbs you’re leaving

How do we end what we should begin

I don’t even know what town we’re in

Please, God, say that it isn’t a sin I’m grieving

Yes, it’s a big one, yes, it’s wide

Out to the world from deep inside

With me, love, oh please abide a while

Once again I am on my knees

Singing to you in Portuguese

It feels like the sky and the wind and the trees are on trial

Put it in your laughter, put it in your drink

Put all the pretty lies under the sink

You always hid me, didn’t you think I was trying?

Write it in your journal or prop it in a nook

It oughta be illegal when you give me that look

Write another chapter at the close of the book I’m dying

Mix it with the ashes, throw it on the rocks

Hide it in your bra, stuff it in your socks

Only you and I could take those walks, oh my dear

Wash it all out, throw it in the dryer

Put it on the back burner with a low fire

Write another song for the lonely choir, just get it out of here

Yes, it’s a big one, yes, it’s tall

Two little children and one big wall

Up we climb and down we fall together

You say a gal’s gotta do what a gal’s gotta do

Well, just you remember how I love you

And that I’ve got a big bad thing for you forever