Picture in Basement

She looked like she had been there forever
Dormant in her paper sleeping bag
A painting worn and dusty
A woman in a scarlet dress
A torn canvass
Where the rip had left the woman
With only one eye
But that was enough
One eye

The eye told her story
An incredible tale
Drama and intrigue
Kisses silhouetted against the Paris moon
A black and white movie
With bursts of unexpected color
How can one little pupil of blue
A tiny pool of azure
Tell a sea of stories?

Was that a tear?
Or was it just the dust…
How many secrets are behind that eye, Scarlet Lady?
How many lovers’ hearts did you break?
And who is he?
The one who broke your heart?
Was that what it was, Scarlet Lady…
Did he break your heart?

Yes. I bet you fought your own dragons too
You didn’t need a knight in shining armor
I can see you Scarlet Lady
Armed with your velvet and diamonds
And those eyes
Men must have been hypnotized by those eyes
And they’d fall in love with you
And then you would pull out your shield
And stab their poor hearts with your sword

You thought you were fighting them
You thought you were protecting your heart
From another tragedy
But you were only stabbing deeper
Into your own bleeding wound

Had it hurt so badly?
When the only man you had ever loved left you?
Did he run away to live with a Spanish Princess?
Had he gone away, a brave soldier
To die in honor of his nation?
Or maybe he saw that coldness
The hunger and desire
That had begun to consume your heart
As the nation learned your name
You said that you always wanted to be famous
But you gave your heart to the stage alone

To the theatre!
There you had shined and glowed
Roses strewn around your scarlet shoes
Lights all on you…a goddess of the stage!
Your voice coursed through the veins of your audience
Marvelous melodies of your opera!
The world was yours!
Now where are your beautiful lyrics?
Do they linger like ghosts among the chandeliers
Of this cobwebbed theatre?

He must have been there that night
The evening when your opera became a success
When you bathed in the warmth of your admirers
When you flirted and danced
And drank champagne
Sparkling with love and happiness
But how long would that ecstasy last?
For another year I suppose…before the moving pictures came
People no longer wanted to go to the opera

And he had left that night
When you had sparkled
But what did it matter to you?
Look at all the other handsome men
Look at their ravenous eyes,
They want you Scarlet Lady
Why would you need him?

You didn’t know that the ravenous men
Would forget you next year
After the sparkling was gone
You didn’t know that the opera would end
You didn’t know you would drink yourself asleep
All alone in your small apartment
Surrounded by money and diamonds
And withered roses

But he knew
He always knew
He knew you better than you knew yourself
And he had loved you
Despite all your blazing faults
He had seen past the sparkle
Beneath the waves of scarlet
The mask of velvet
And he had painted you
Poured his soul into the art
What had you done, Scarlet Lady?
Laying awake at nights staring at the painting
Mocking you as it sparkled from the wall
It hid emotions you would never be able to dig up

Until the day you could take it no longer
And the glint of a knife pierced the acrylic surface
Like a dark deed
Upon a sacred text
A wound upon the canvass
Pouring out life
And left a gash susceptible to infection
And a lady drenched in scarlet
Dripping wet with her pain
Drowning in crimson memories

And now the tragedy is trapped beneath the brush strokes
The anger within the rips
Forever captive in a canvass torn and dusty
Destined to tell the same dreadful tale over and over
A scarred painting
With one rip
A rip through your heart
Who would have ever guessed?
Among the chandeliers and ghosts
Of this cobwebbed theatre

And there was a painting worn and dusty
Of a scarlet lady
She looked like she had been there forever
Dormant in her paper sleeping bag
A woman in a scarlet dress
A torn canvass
Where the rip had left the woman
With only one eye
But that was enough