Lyrics

LEI OF ORCHIDS
Words by Benjamin Wood (c) 2008
Music by Arbiter Deputy


you wore a lei of orchids around your neck and
you had the sun in your eyes but your shoulders were wet
with all the rain that had fallen from the bell-tower eaves
as you were waiting for me among the brushpiles of leaves
at the façade of the church on Second Avenue where
you said your parents got married in 1962 and
where they christened you Amy on the 5th July
and where the funeral was held after your grandmother died

you saw me walking and waved with a quick roll of your hand
you were still wearing your hair up in a flowery band 'cause
you'd been out at a club with your volleyball team and
you'd had to wear something with a Hawaiian theme
there was this look in your eye like a powercut at night
and I knew something was wrong but I couldn't tell why
until you held out your hand and you tilted your head
and sighed a soft kind of sigh and you deliberated
on whether Starbuck's was open on the corner of Main
and set off walking along dark pavements glistening with rain

and when we stopped in the doorway of some fake 80s pub
that was spitting out the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club
you said that it was over but all I could hear was
don't you forget about me
don't you forget about me
and you took off the orchids from around your neck
and threw them into the trunk of a tree's silhouette
that was cast on the rain-slick flags of concrete
don't you forget about me
don't you forget about me
and as you walked away crying along West Thirteenth Street
you trampled the orchids down with the soles of your feet
don't you forget about me
don't you forget about me

the rain it sounded like horse hooves on the roofs of the cars
before the traffic lights changed down to red you were gone
and there was some kind of cold metal taste on my tongue
I can still taste it every morning
and I can taste it right now
I won't forget about you