When I Was Cruel, 2002

I exit through the spotlight glare
I stepped out into thin air
Into a perfume so rarified
"Here comes the bride"

Not quite aside, they snide "She's number four.
There's number three just by the door."
Those in the know don't even flatter her, they go one better
"She was selling speedboats at a trade show when he met her."

Look at her now, she's starting to yawn
She looks like she was born to it
But it was so much easier when I was cruel

She reaches out her arms to me
Imploring for another melody
So she can dance her husband out on the floor
Captains of industry, they just lie there as they fall
In eau-de-nil and pale carnation
A satin sash and velvet elevation
She straightens the tipsy head-dress of her spouse
While hers recalls a honey house
There'll be no sorrows left to drown
Early in the morning in your evening gown
But it was so much easier when I was cruel

The entrance hall is arranged with hostesses and ushers
Who turned out to be the younger wives nursing schoolgirl crushes
Parting the waves of those few feint friends
Fingers once offered now are too heavy to extend

The ghostly first wife glides up, stage-whispering to raucous talkers
Spilling family secrets out to flunkies and castrato walkers
See that girl,
Watch that scene
Digging the dancing queen

Two newspaper editors like playground sneaks
Running a book on which one of them is going to last the week
One of them calls to me
And he says "I know you.
You gave me this tattoo back in '82.
You were a smart child then, with a record to plug,
And I was a shaven-headed seaside thug.
Things haven't really changed as such,
One of us is still getting paid too much."

There are some things I shan't report
The memory of his last retort
But it was so much easier when I was cruel

Look at me now, she's starting to yawn
She looks like she was born to it
But it was so much easier when I was cruel