la cienega just smiled (live), ryan adams
la cienega just smiles
and says
i’ll see you around
there were favorite songs that you memorized of mine, though now i’m not sure why you bothered. perhaps it was a way to say you knew me better than any of the others that came before, or who would follow later. it always seemed to matter to you that you knew me best, though honestly, you never knew me at all.
we drove down that winding road, back onto sunset blvd. the sun was blinding my eyes, sharp glares across the dashboard, making my eyes sting. you kept pointing out the girls walking by, laughing nervously, trying to recapture what once existed between us, before all this. all i could do was answer with a startling silence.
i turned the wheel to the left, the city beckoning below us, the street a free-falling spill to the bottom. you grabbed my hand, squeezed it slightly, and said “it’s your street….from that song you love…your song.”
i pulled my hand away, swallowed hard so the tears would not come, and i thought those are the only things that will ever be mine - a faded hollywood street sign, and a beautifully heartbreaking song.
in the end, it had to be enough.
in the end, this song was everything.
laura.
