"The Pursewarden Affair" lyrics - ANAIS MITCHELL

Percy Pursewarden
Open up your door
I haven't come to break your cadence
Or mix your metaphor
And if I swore I was no critic would you let me come inside?
Would you write your famous lines?
And you lay your secret plans
For suicide by slight of hand?

And you let me down so kindly
You don't love me
But you don't mind me

Percy Pursewarden
After all your hard traveling
Think a girl could lay down beside you without your world unraveling?
In a modeling mess
Yes, that's my clothing in a pile
Just wanna stay a little while
Just wanna see that crooked grin
After the sedatives set in, hey

And then we're feeling fine
You don't love me
I don't mind

Percy Pursewarden
I'll be gone before you wake
Back to the gallery of failures to see what I can make of you
Pursewarden
Have mercy on my heart
Maybe I don't want to call it art
Just because you nailed it to the wall
Maybe I'm a critic after all

And you don't have to remind me
You don't love me
But you don't mind me