What Do You Buy at the End?

Intro

The fountain’s still running.

The driveway’s on fire.

Somebody left the sprinklers on

like water could retire.

The gates keep opening, closing,

opening, closing again.

There’s nobody coming up the road.

There’s nobody calling me “friend.”

Verse 1

The generator coughs behind the tennis court,

my mother’s portrait watching from the wall.

I’ve got twelve cars under waterproof sheets,

but none of them know where to go at all.

The pool boy left a note on the marble sink,

said, “Good luck, man,” and took the truck.

I’m eating peaches from a crystal bowl,

checking my phone like it still gives a—

Pre-Chorus

There’s champagne warm in the panic room,

gold bars stacked by the bottled air.

I paid a man to build me heaven,

now I’m the only idiot there.

Hook / Chorus

What do you buy at the end?

A ladder? A lawyer? A better friend?

I’ve got a house on a hill and a name on a gate,

but the sky doesn’t care what my father made.

What do you do when the money won’t bend?

What do you buy at the end?

What do you buy at the end?

What do you buy at the end?

Verse 2

The neighbors lit their hedges up

to spell out HELP in burning leaves.

I watched it from the breakfast nook

with imported tea between my teeth.

My bunker has a movie screen,

Italian tile, a wine display.

But nobody answered the intercom

when I buzzed downstairs to be saved.

Pre-Chorus

There’s a Rolex stopped at 3:18,

a safe full of cash I can’t spend anywhere.

I paid a priest, I paid a doctor,

I paid a pilot who isn’t there.

Hook / Chorus

What do you buy at the end?

A ladder? A lawyer? A better friend?

I’ve got a house on a hill and a name on a gate,

but the sky doesn’t care what my father made.

What do you do when the money won’t bend?

What do you buy at the end?

What do you buy at the end?

What do you buy at the end?

Instrumental Break

Long Bridge

I used to laugh at grocery lines,

at coupon hands and overtime.

At people counting quarters out

beneath the pharmacy sign.

I bought the lake, I bought the dock,

I bought the guardhouse and the dogs.

I bought a painting of a storm

and hung it in the hall.

Now the real one’s at the window,

dragging branches through the yard.

All my passwords, all my lawyers,

all my numbers, all my cards—

none of them can open this.

None of them can raise the dead.

None of them can make the voice

come back through the intercom again.

I’d trade the keys to every room,

the cellar wine, the silver spoons,

for one bad joke from someone real

and a mattress on the floor with room.

The dog is scratching at the cellar door.

I finally know what doors are for.

The dog is scratching at the cellar door.

I finally know what doors are for.

Final Hook / Chorus

What do you buy at the end?

A lighter? A shovel? A decent friend?

I’ve got my name on a wing of the hospital,

but nobody’s picking up the phone.

What do you do when the money won’t bend?

What do you buy at the end?

What do you buy at the end?

What do you buy at the end?

Outro

The fountain’s still running.

The fountain’s still running.

The fountain’s still running

for no one.