BURMA SHAVE

and the spider web crack and the mustang screamed
smoke from the tires and the twisted machine
just a nickel's worth of dreams and every wishbone that they saved
lie swindled from them on the way to
burma shave


and the sun hit the derrick and cast a bat wing shadow
up against the car door on the shot gun side
and when they pulled her from the wreck you know she
still had on her shades
they say that dreams are growing wild just this side of
burma shave

THE POPULAR ENTERTAINER TOM WAITS wrote this moving song partially quoted above in 1996, about a lady condemned to live in a dead-end town she describes as a prison who then seizes a chance at freedom and betterment in taking a ride from a stranger. Her attempt at liberty and happiness ends in disaster and death for herself and her wayward lover, but, as we can see from the above lyric, she dies in some style, and looking pretty. For some reason I have been thinking about this song this morning.