Passion Play - Janis Ian

She came from Dakota

Though some say she hailed from the South

He tried to believe but each time she would leave

With the venom that dripped from her mouth

Like some angel of old

Bent on saving the soul

Drugged to the knees he would pray

To some rude Russian icon

That twined like a python

And blinded the sun, night, and day

He’d say

Please bring me peace

You say you’ll stay

Just to leave me whole

All of my soul your passion play

Though she lies to amuse

She lies to confuse

Passion with vision and pain

He lies for possession and time

Though there’s no time to gain

Squandering feeling

Constantly stealing away

From the sound of her name

Is like thunder and lightning

Hiding the sound of the rain

And he’d say

So he searches for truth

In the beauty that once was her name

Senselessly trusting in time to remind her

Blind, she came

Suddenly rootless

Fashionably useless

Magically fruitless and time

Like some Sunday scholar

Who lives off the squalor

Of yesterday’s knowledge and fame

And he’d say

Well some overdose

And some wrap like a rose

'Round the slick perfumed nose

Of high noon

Burning their lips

As they stoop low to kiss

Some rich man’s excuse for the moon

I must have been lucky --

Got out with my body intact

And tomorrow in tune

But it’s this sense of time

That wraps like a vine

'Round the neck of the sun and the moon