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 straw dog threw rock salt   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 guardrail   And decided who she wanted to be once more      Now, every night I'm paralyzed   By the fear of rope burns and morning light   And the smell of wet cement   Since I became irrelevant      Now, memory's 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   You 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, oh, what it meant   To feel irrelevant      Now, I'm always smilin', cryin'   And hidin' my intent   Since I became irrelevant