Ballad of the Broken Strings

Jackie and Jane dug Joni Mitchell
at the Coffee Cup Cafe
in New York
they promised each other they'd write songs
together
in the days before before heroin mixed with chalk


so they packed their guitars and headed out west

with sex and surfers in their hearts
in sad Santa
Monica Jane bought a harmonica
and Jackie a few poisoned
darts

they rented this cool condo in Glendale

and wrote a dirge called 'Blundering Joe'
the
needle of the numb, the hustle in the muscle
turned
California a rusty glow

*

one
year later at the Copper Penny
Jumping Jackie, Harmonica Jane

are waiting for the dealer the Pittsburgh stealer

the girl that dealt on the train

well the
Pittsburgh Stealer showed up late
said she won't be fixing
anymore
because she's met Jesus Christ on Venice Beach

something beautiful to live for

well
Jackie turned angry
punched the wall, Harmonica Jane just
laughed
the Pittsburgh Stealer slinked away
to make
a fortune in new age craft

sweating ,shaking Jackie
and Jane
went breaking into chemists in the cold

nowhere to live, nothing to give
guitars and
lipstick cheaply sold

they died in the Hollywood
Hills
turning tricks for a ten-dollar bag
an
Alabama man with a psychotic tan
strangled them with the
Union flag