Standard (EADGBE)

One time in ten things will perfectly mend

 And the moonlight on the porch screen will so perfectly bend

 And you'll bow like a flower and be OK without her

 As your holiday crescendo begins

Christmas came one thousand times each year

 Once on the twenty-fifth, the rest when she was near

 And you could lose yourself in all that coke and beer

 But you always came out smelling like a rose when she was close

"Hold me," she says, her hair is a mess

 But her eyes glow like embers so you draw close and press

 Her photo to your face, feel its glossy embrace

 After that you sort of forget the rest

 But it's so windy in the aspen groves

 Driving the wildfire west, (????????)

 Making your heaving chest open and close

 You know things only glow when they're broken and lonely

 So then you're there on the beach while she was still in reach

 She was the type of girl who'd make a pastor want to preach

 Of brimstone and grails, of the blood on the nails

 Of stained hair and bathtubs full of bleach

 You're on the Greyhound bus watching the South get small

 Beeline for Canada, escape the (???????)

 'Cause when the leaves catch fire you wait for ghosts to call

Disconnect the phone

 Get the hell out of this hell you once called home

 (repeat --- few times, end on .)