Irrelevant - Matthew Ryan

There’s only one light on in the house

And that’s the light up in the hall

And it’s shining on the back of my head

And I’m concentrating hard

On the cigarette to the ashtray

From the ashtray back to my lips

So I lean up from my easy chair

I rub my three-day beard and give that thousand-yard stare

As I recall all the time and the money we spent

Before I became irrelevant

So the strawdog threw rocksalt

And the precious girl took a bow and walked

As I ran my finger over the screen door

Yeah every kiss has reeked of betrayal

Since my heroine jumped the guard rail

And decided who she wanted to be once more

Now every night I’m paralysed

By the fear of rope burns and morning light

And the smell of wet cement

Since I became irrelevant

Now memory is just a flash flood

A thick and black sticky mud

And heartache it’s like a breaking bone

It was always twelve hours on a missionary line

I think i would’ve spared some time

But I didn’t I never went home

Now it occurs to me like blinds undrawn

Or a bullet from a shotgun

That she knew long ago what it meant

To feel irrelevant

Now I’m always smiling, crying and hiding my intent

Since I became irrelevant