Lyrics: Dancer

Dancer

Safe in the sound of a Saturday night
The band starts to play as they turn down the lights
And you're sitting alone there next to the wall
You are there for the music, to listen, that's all
Or at least that's what you tell yourself as your eyes
Start to slowly get used to the darkness
As you look past the faces, the weak and the wise
You are struck by the sweetness in one pair of eyes

(You wonder)
Is she the one who will hold you at night?
The girl in the future, the ghost of a might-have been
Is she the dancer who twirls in your mind
Like the lingering taste of a sweet gypsy wine?

(So) you write her a letter that Saturday night
You write it in verse in the dim barroom light
You tell her you wondered if she were the one
The lady you long for, the life not begun
And you tell her that she was too lovely for you
To speak to across all that darkness
When you leave the show early, you leave the note, too
Leave yourself and your questions for her in plain view

(You ask her)
Are you the one who will hold me at night?
The girl in the future, the ghost of a might-have-been
Are you the dancer who twirls in my mind
Like the lingering taste of a sweet gypsy wine

She's all alone on this Saturday night
She doesn't believe in a love at first sight
When she catches you staring, she looks at the floor
She's not into quick sparks or instant rapport
But there's something about you that draws her eyes back
As she walks through the crowd in the darkness
When she sees your chair empty, she picks up your note
And she reads it aloud, past the lump in her throat:

(You asked her)
Are you the one who will hold me at night?
The girl in the future, the ghost of a might-have-been
Are you the dancer who twirls in my mind
Like the lingering taste of a sweet gypsy wine

Bridge:
She -- doesn't know if this is right or wrong
She's never felt so reckless and headstrong
The run to the parking lot seems so far
Just in time to see you get into your car
And you drive away, drive away, leaving her there
With the lights on her face and the rain in her hair
And she turns around slowly and goes back inside
Feeling phantom eyes on her; she just wants to hide

So she sits at your table that Saturday night
She thinks about meetings, how it serves her right
As she's sitting alone there next to the wall
And the band starts to wind down, approaching last call
But you can't get those eyes of hers out of your mind
So you turn your car round in the darkness
You drive back to the bar, not expecting to find her
But there she is, in your chair, writing your lines:

(I don't know)
If I'm the one who will hold you at night
The girl in the future, the ghost of a might-have-been
Am I the dancer who twirls in your mind
Like the lingering taste of a sweet gypsy wine

Are you the one who will hold me at night?
The love in the future, the ghost of a might-have-been
Are you the dancer who twirls in my mind
Like the lingering taste of a sweet gypsy wine

Notes: Last summer, Three Weird Sisters had a gig at Atlanta's Red Light Cafe. After the show, I was talking with bandmates and noticed two pieces of yellow paper on a table near the door. I'm a curious girl, so I picked it up. And it was a note from a fellow to an anonymous woman, with some similar feelings to this. I felt sorry that it wasn't a big live love story; the poem was considerably more bleak than the song I have written about it. I was also really impressed that someone would go to a place like the Red Light, and write a poem, and just leave it there, for anyone to find, a piece of themselves. I can't decide how I feel about it, but I thought the idea was beautiful, so I put characters into the story and wrote them. Finished 4/25/03.


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