Diane’s riding in the back seat
With an earring of hope
She goes looking through her purse
And finds a match to light her smoke

Then she exhales in a grey plume
And thinks to herself:
Most of what we call tragedy
Is disguised as something else

Diane, free from her mind
In the back seat of a dark car
On the shores of time

Oh Diane, she’s swimming back to me
With an arrow in her eyes
With an earring and an ashtray
In the morning light

Diane walks on heavy carpets
With a dusty scent of pine
And she wanders around the gathering
Greeting distant friends of mine

When she spots a plaster statue
Of a man without a face
She’s reminded of her destiny
To return some other place

Diane, free from her mind
On a statue, up the river
To the shores of time

Oh Diane, she’s swimming back to me
With a secret in her eyes
With the scent of sawdust carpets
In the morning light

Diane’s wrapped in ink-stained bed sheets
Looking like a poet’s muse
And she writes with such intensity
That her hand’s becoming bruised

But she dives a little deeper;
Without a moment’s rest
She wrote everything she thought she knew
Until there was nothing left

Diane, free from her mind
On the outer sandy reaches
On the shores of time

Oh Diane, she’s swimming back to me
With a blank page in her eyes
With a bed sheet and a library
In the morning light

Diane kneels before a candle
And she says some holy words
Her windows are all open wide
Letting in the sound of birds

Then she crosses herself solemnly
As she finishes her prayer
And she takes of all her tired clothing
Except the earring that she wears

Diane, free from her mind
In a black-and-white cathedral
On the shores of time

Oh Diane, she’s swimming back to me
With a cardinal in her eyes
With a candle and a question
In the morning light

Diane shivers in the bathroom
And confronts the cloudy mirror;
Her cheeks are red and swollen
But her brown eyes are crystal clear

Then she leans down to the faucet
And with never-ending thirst
She keeps drinking until she forgets
I went down the river first

Diane, free from her mind
Wading in the shallow waters
On the shores of time

Oh Diane, she’s swimming back to me
With a memory in her eyes
With a mirror and her warm breath
In the morning light