Jive Talking
by
Billie Phillips

You don't understand, my man,
You simply do not understand
Why I do what I do.
Why should you? No one else does.
Oh yes, I'm high, but when love and pain
Fly together, it's a heavy combination.
I'm not ashamed, let's have a toast to
My sweet love.
The way I seem, it's just a part of my act --
A silly game of C. Y. A. -- Cover Your Ass.
Your words hurt, but that will pass,
But not the pain. So don't ever say I'm mean.
It's only smoke, a super-cool facade, a bluff,
A guise. It hides my heart from too-blue eyes.
Tell the truth? Don't be absurd! Sit a while
...play my hand and think about the man
Who cages me with crooked grins.
I tell my truth -- nobody wins.
Why the sudden sad surprise, the pity
Lurking in your eyes? My silence buys me love
...and hope.
And here he comes, so set me up another round
And paste a smile across your face before he asks
Why you're so grim.
Do you know, my somber friend, how mean I'd be
If not for him?
Before you hang me out to dry, remember how
He makes me laugh. Think who holds me
When I cry.
The slender hands that play with toys often hold
My life secure.
That's enough for any man.
And yet I lust for him, you get my drift?
His body pressed against my own...
But more than that,
The bottom line:
I need his love, and now it's mine.
I can't risk that on a dream. I can't.
Please understand! I'd rather bleed and blow my
Smoke than mar his childlike innocence.
Just to try and have my hope...
Look how he makes his way to me.
He says hello, he does the nods, but
All the while he comes to me.
You keep your truth...and keep mine too.
Don't think to give my heart away.
Just let me love him
...in my way.