Capo 5th fret

Standard (EADGBE)

I wrote a thousand verses,

Each one about doctors and nurses.

On paper napkins in diners

and wrote the titles on matchsticks.

Tucked them in the left breast pocket

of a tattered silk check shirt

And threw the shirt away

into the shadow of a corner

of a northern Spanish bar

without brass in the backline

but shutters on the doors

and twenty, thirty people

in clusters on the floor,

looking anywhere but at each other.

Between the runners of a busted wooden pier

before the beers with Tracy on the bottle.

And I thought of you at the airport

and I was still thinking of you on the plane.

And when the police took my passport

and wrote down my name -

I thought of you again.

I was doing press-ups in the hotel lobby;

The lobby with me was unimpressed.

I managed five, but I was barely alive,

when I rolled over to rest.

And I thought of all your illnesses

and your incredible strength

And I guess that it meant that I missed you.

And I though of all the little things that always made you tense

and I wished I was able to tell you that

I'd have learnt a thousand tricks to make them disappear

With whispers in the ear

and kisses.

And I though about your lips, your mouth, your smile, your laugh, your lips

your lips, your mouth, your smile, your laugh, your lips.

And I though of you in Sweden

Like I'd been thinking of you all over Spain.