The Party Goes With You - Lindsay Mendez

We don’t speak of names and faces

Why should we?

We don’t speak of husbands or homes

Or work or wives and happy lives

All we’ve got are lips on faces

Moving flawlessly

Holding secrets in our clothes

On the nights I catch you standing

Are you waiting for me?

At the counter of this bar

Speakeasy, hole in the wall

We minuet to cigarette and brandy

Your favorite armagnac

Prohibition but there’s no harm

But when you strike your goodbye pose

Everybody knows, everybody knows

The party, well, it goes too

And damn it all, darling

The party goes with you

…And I’m left with all the messes

Da, di, da

Cleaning up for vows in gold

Our fraught affair turned solitaire

Wishing to take back

Merely one of my yeses

Aching to be yours

And have my story all retold

But when you strike your goodbye pose

Everybody knows, everybody knows

The party, well, it goes too

And damn it all, darling

The party goes with you

And when we’re dancing nose to nose

Darling do you suppose, oh, darling do you suppose

This party could be just us two, and I your wife?

Oh, oh, the gayest party, sad but true

It’s true

The party goes with you

The party goes with you

The life of the party

In the party of my life