Marlene On The Wall -- Suzanne Vega

Even if I am in love with you All this to say, what's it to you?
Observe the blood, the rose tattoo Of the fingerprints on me from you Other evidence has shown That you and I are still alone We skirt around the danger zone And don't talk about it later

Marlene watches from the wall Her mocking smile says it all
As the records the rise and fall Of every soldier passing
But the only soldier now is me I'm fighting things I cannot see
I think it's called my destiny That I am changing
Marlene on the wall

I walk to your house in the afternoon By the butcher's shop with the sawdust strewn "Don't give away the goods too soon"
Is what she might have told me And I tried so hard to resist
When you held me in your handsome fist And reminded me of the night we kissed And of why I should be leaving

Marlene watches from the wall Her mocking smile says it all
As the records the rise and fall Of every man who's been here
But the only one here now is me I'm fighting things I cannot see
I think it's called my destiny That I am changing
Marlee on the walln

Vega wrote this about coping with loneliness; she finds comfort by looking up to a poster of Marlene Dietrich on the wall. Vega really did have a poster of Dietrich on her wall.                 (songfacts)