My parents' house is bigger than our two-room apartment
But we made one of those a red room for your photographs
And my mother said I could stay
long as I called you a phase
I remember your face when I first
told you that and you laughed

Crawling back to my gilded cage
Baby bird's flying and Fido is stuck inside

You will move to different cities
And I'll still be here sitting pretty

I wonder where your car was headed
The day that you packed up and vanished
Did you make it to sunset, or somewhere with similar views?
And I dream about you in my childhood bedroom
Haunted by husbands-to-be
Don the makeup, the earrings, fit every wrong feeling
In skirts that go better with you

This blue ribbon's back on display
Fido's a show dog and baby bird's flying away

You will move to different cities
And I'll still be here sitting pretty

You're setting a scene, I'm setting his table
You're laughing in bars, I'm feeding his friends
You're kissing her back, and I'm barely able
To love someone else without playing pretend

Some piece of my heart ran out with you
An echo of what I once was
When I'd choose to be somewhere
(In photographs you left behind)
Choose to be someone
(A smile that I don't recognize)

If Fido's a show dog and baby bird's flying away
Can ribbons still hold her
if nothing she's wanted has stayed?
And Fido has plenty, long as she stays in her cage
But nothing is stopping the screaming inside her to change

You will move to different cities
And I'll still be here sitting pretty