

M A L I N W A G N O N M U S I C
HARD TO REACH
Mama’s been a little hard to reach
She took the babies up to Myrtle Beach
Wants to study something I can teach
And I never was much for learning
Packed ‘em up in an old white van
Manufactured in Vietnam
I’m flicking ashes in a old beer can
And they tell me that Detroit’s still burning
Mama got a taste of something sweet
Where the water and the white sands meet
Posting pictures of her pretty little feet
For the whole round world to see
It’s been three days since I changed my clothes
Staring out the window at three black crows
Picking in the gravel where nothing grows
And thinking ‘bout her pretty little toes
All I can see mirrored in the TV
Is an image of me in a picture that we
Hung on the wall of the first day we met
A shared cigarette
How soon we forget
How it used to be
Mama got herself a brand new dress
It doesn’t matter but I must confess
I wonder who she’s trying to impress
Looking like the belle of the ball
Sissy’s in a picture grinning ear to ear
Baby brother got a souvenir
And mama’s learning magic, she can disappear
Like she never was there at all
All that I’ve known and have claimed as my own
Is battered and blown, see it sink like a stone
Under the waves of that wild eastern sea
That’s where she left me
And those memories
Of how it used to be
Mama sent a letter ‘cross the great divide
Hand delivered and certified
Take it with the catalogs back inside
And tack it on the bedroom wall
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Strip back down to my underwear
Sitting in the kitchen in a cane back chair
Telephone ringing but I ain’t there
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That call ain’t never gonna go through
Nobody here to answer you
See I got a little magic too
It’s like I never was here at all