Moonlight spills like silver paint

Across the crooked wall

Every crack and faded rose

Dances in its thrall

Outside my window

One wild bush

Opens slow against the dark

White flowers glowing ghostlike

In this velvet world of scars

And the night holds its breath…

Shh… shh…

Don’t wake the sleeping whores

They’re snoring loud

In the room next door

Petals fall like silent snow

On dirty wooden floors

A painted world in moonlight

Where nobody keeps score

Shh… shh…

Let the roses keep their bloom

While rented bodies dream of money

In the other room

Her lipstick stains the glass

A crimson crescent moon

Cheap perfume and cigarette ghosts

Still hanging in the gloom

I trace the silver on her thigh

Like painting something pure

But truth is always cheaper

Than the lies we both endure

And the night holds its breath…

Shh… shh…

Don’t wake the sleeping whores

They’re snoring loud

In the room next door

Petals fall like silent snow

On dirty wooden floors

A painted world in moonlight

Where nobody keeps score

Shh… shh…

Let the roses keep their bloom

While rented bodies dream of money

In the other room

Maybe tomorrow they’ll wake

And paint their faces new

Slip back into the streets

Like flowers torn in two

But tonight the moon is kind

It doesn’t judge or choose

It paints us all the same

The sinners and the muse

Shh… shh…

The whole world’s gone to sleep

Except that glowing bush outside

Too wild to learn the cheap

I watch it bloom in silver

While rented heartbeats creep

Painted by the moonlight…

Even broken things look beautiful

Whenever they dream

Shh…

Let the roses keep their bloom…

While the prostitutes keep snoring

In the other room…