The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 180 We Are Strangers

I was feeling very alienated from the family

It wasn’t actually my family it was my partner’s

All her brothers and sisters and their offspring

We were on holiday at Ocean Beach and it was pissing with rain

They were all getting drunk and arguing in the house

I wasn’t drinking in those days and just wanted out

So I stayed in the little room at the back of the garage where I slept

I had my guitar and came up with this intoxicating series of chords

The balance in my relationship had shifted and I was always on the back foot it seemed

She had a big powerful career now and I was still scratching around

It felt like I was at her mercy but was too weak to leave her and our son

I didn’t want to leave – I still loved her but I could feel her feelings for me waning away

It was a hollow place to be but I was finding real joy in the music I was writing that day

A complex but beautiful collision of chord changes and I didn’t want to lose it

So I stayed out in that little room till I nailed it down to the sad words that followed it

We Are Strangers

She’s crazy in one of those moods

Where it’s no picnic and I can never say anything wrong

She’ll soon be coming down

To those old home truths – she’s got a method of her own

And it breaks my heart when she lets on

That she’s going to bed alone

It’s a wonder we can function at all

With the weight of who we are

It’s no good making plans

When conditions can change at the wave of a hand

I’m totally out of my zone

And in the wink of an eye I could be totally out on my own

We are strangers in a very strange way

That we don’t know at all

We are famous for a very strange thing

When we get caught they give it a name

She’ll soon be someone new

And I’ll be lucky if I can ever be anything more