My teenage years were full of fear   I spent most of them inside   Sitting on the telephone   Being bitchy and unkind      Wandering from room to room   Trying to leave my self behind   Walking with my eyes closed   Pretending to be blind      Naked in the kitchen   I was smoking in the hall   Vacuuming the sofa   Trying to make sense of it all      Sweeping under carpet   All my pain with all the dirt   And the only thing that kept me sane   Cigarettes and housework   Cigarettes and housework      Drowning all my sorrows   In an effort to be free   Playing my piano   Writing the requiem for me      Thinking I could clean up   All the trouble from yesterday   Or hoping that my cigarette smoke   Would carry it away      Naked in the kitchen   I was smoking in the hall   Vacuuming the sofa   Trying to make sense of it all      Sweeping under carpet   All my pain with all the dirt   And the only thing that kept me sane   Cigarettes and housework   Cigarettes and housework      I had come through the trauma of youth   But once in a while I still find myself      Naked in the kitchen   Smoking in the hall   Vacuming the sofa   Trying to make sense of it all      Sweeping under carpet   All my pain with all the dirt   And the only thing that keeps me sane   Cigarettes and housework   Cigarettes and housework