Lisa Gatewood: Lyrics

I read Salinger in the summer of ‘04
at my kitchen table while Tom was standing in the door
asking my permission without a single word
to discuss the unpleasantness he had heard.

There was a war of words that year
the louder you yelled the less they would hear
and it was convenient that they had killed the only one
who could tell us the awful things they had done

A young body lifeless in a patrol car
was written in the papers you never got far
and Tom says there’s no use in blaming for this mistake
when there’s nothing left inside me
there’s nothing more to take.

So I read Salinger ‘cause he was as angry as me.
He understood this wasn’t the way it was supposed to be
at night the thought of Seymour slept beside me
so I could forget about the empty rooms where we used to be

Tom asks me what I’ll do with myself
What I’ll do with myself
now that the war is over, what’ll I do with myself?
And I tell him, I tell him I’ll read Salinger.