I remember one young sister with rainbows in her eyes   Standing on a corner with the afternoon's supply   She spoke of other places, perhaps a better road   Then she asked if I could tell her where they kept the mother lode      Like a night this side of dying   Her day's inside the dropper on the shelf   When she hears her lifeline crying   Not a thing you say can stop her   When she just can't stop herself      I remember that July, the panic and the heat   The savage shine of summer, the strychnine in the street   The way they sold each other for a favor in glassine   The best of friends sold brothers for a dime of quinine dreams      Like a night this side of dying   Her day's inside the dropper on the shelf   Like the shelter she's been buying   Not a thing I've got can save her   When she just can't save herself   She just can't save herself