[INTRO — instrumental, stomping upright bass, distant sax] [VERSE 1 — agitated, tight] Lawyer's office, Tuesday, conference room B (room B) Her lawyer, my lawyer, a carafe of watery tea Fourteen years reduced to a stack and a tab Little yellow stickers saying sign here, and I brought my own pen — the good one — the one She gave me our fifth Christmas — the irony's done On purpose — let the thing she gave me end it There's a poetry in that if you're broken enough to spend it So I flip to the first tab and I press the tip And the pen — won't — write — I shake it, I grip It harder — scratch circles on the legal pad Dead — of all days — and I almost feel glad Like the pen's refusing — like it's got a soul Like it's saying not me, man, not my role [HOOK — cracked, half-yelled] The pen, the pen (won't write) Fourteen years and it ends with a dried-up line The pen, the pen (won't write) Even the ink knows this ain't right (the pen) [BRIDGE — bass only, voice bare] I kept the dead pen — stupid, I know It's in a drawer with the warranties Some things you keep not to remember But because they were witness — they were there They ran out when we did [VERSE 2 — whisper cracking up to yell] Her lawyer slides a Bic across the table Blue, chewed cap — the poetry's disabled And she looks at me — her — and I look at her And the room goes soft like the first years were We almost laugh — both of us — the timing's absurd The gift pen dying on the final word She says: it was a good pen — I say: it was For five Christmases — and that's just what it does Now — things run out — ink, years, whatever we had That we didn't write down — doesn't make it bad Just finished — I sign with the chewed blue Bic Every tab, every line, and it hurts, and it's quick And she signs after me and her hand don't shake And mine does — and that's the give and the take [HOOK — cracked, half-yelled] The pen, the pen (won't write) Fourteen years and it ends with a dried-up line The pen, the pen (won't write) Even the ink knows this ain't right (the pen) [OUTRO — sax fades over brushes] (the pen...) Blue, chewed cap It wrote fine
