Lyrics

She was waiting at the intersection for her life to change
By accident or detonation, or something just as strange
I was quick to react, I was slow to think
With my elbow out the window I said, "Buy me a drink?"
We left others to sift through the facts and the blood on the tracks

I washed up on the Blue Nile just outside of Khartoum
She smiled at me and said, "I haven't seen you since the womb."
No injury I suffered went unhealed by her touch
Beauty is a privilege till love becomes a crutch
After which there could be no second acts, just more blood on the tracks

She had the shoulders of a farm girl hauling water from a well
And almond eyes of cold steel and war stories she'll never tell
She'd made her journey 'cross the black fog of the Mekong
Just to stay alive, never to stay long
With her head upon my chest, she said, "Baby relax,
It's all blood on the tracks."

Now I'm a-walkin' down the tracks alone just waitin' on a train
In the softness of a saxophone, I hear that lonesome strain
She'd grown weary of her lover, but she hadn't told me yet
She was shopping for another to lay a bigger better bet
And accidentally stepping on the cracks
I noticed blood on the tracks

At the Bicycle Casino, she was looking for an easy mark
Walking like a courtesan, circling like a shark
She would double down when no one else had the guts
Were you counting cards, Babe, or was it just your luck?
I busted, and I knew the deck was stacked next to the blood on the tracks

She took a lover with the same name as someone who was famous
"Close enough for me," she said, "and his money will maintain us."
But she used to be the figure the artist couldn't paint
I used to be the sculptor's clay before it took its shape
Now we're patrons amongst the artifacts of our blood on the tracks

Sometimes I dream about my mother, and I forget she's not alive
I put together what I know and in that moment she survives
When I realize I'm just chasing memories
Memories truer than the world in front of me
I've learned the things you can't bring back
Are etched in blood on the tracks
The things you can't bring back
Are etched in blood on the tracks
Yeah, the things you can't bring back
Are etched in blood on the tracks