The Dutch Widows - Just The White Wine?

from SpinTunes 20 Round 1 by Spintunes

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about

Over the last little while I’ve been trying to write songs about tiny things or moments, mostly real, but some imagined, all with a strong narrative element. I want to make them less song-y, but still songs. That’s the aim, anyway. This is one of those, and is largely true, except the wife bit. I wasn’t married at the time, but ‘girlfriend/potential life partner’ didn’t scan so well. Given that I broke my arm in two places on Friday, the rest of this SpinTunes will feature far fewer guitars from me!

lyrics

Walking you home on a warm summer’s night
And we left the party pumping, it’ll run till it’s light
An offer of coffee was made by the gate to the park in the dark

My flutter of panic unsettles the birds
They take to the sky and they leave us on earth
The offer repeated a hint that so much more is in store

Will we look at this moment and feel the regret for decisions we made for better or best?
The fractional gains that brought us to here, the signals, tequila, the Cointreau, the beer

This opportunity’s a conundrum of sorts
These glimpses of pleasure regretted of course
Instead I returned to the party the wine and my wife and my life

I’d wanted that more than I’d ever admit
But when push came to shove I was scared from my wits
Another cute wrinkle in life and my narrative arc; I bear marks

I couldn’t explain why I wanted to leave, my urge was to run and I needed to flee
The look in your eye disappointment I bet that the night ran its course and it ended a mess

But you’d said you couldn’t stand to see me with someone else
Though you didn’t want me either all to yourself
Magic things happen when stories and saints are aligned
Was it destiny calling to us, or just the white wine?

Time is a pressure and time never stops
The only way to capture time is a clock
My feelings got frozen and stuck in a groove in a line at the time

The sun never rose on our endless midnight
And I turned my back then and was sucked into night
These moments indelibly etched and are fixed for all time, in my mind

I didn’t mean to hurt you or mess with your head, my thoughts were always selfish my mind never there
Choices were made and I live with the past and you never mention it, I never ask

But you’d said you couldn’t stand to see me with someone else
Though you didn’t want me either all to yourself
Magic things happen when stories and saints are aligned
Was it destiny calling to us, or just the white wine?

credits

from SpinTunes 20 Round 1, released March 21, 2023

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Spintunes Union, South Carolina

Spintunes is a semi-annual songwriting contest. Every other week, the competitors receive a challenge and a week to meet it.

Each album on this site contains the responses to a single challenge.