I Can Tell

John Wesley Harding

I can tell when you're telling lies
I can see it in your smiling eyes
I can't help when you're telling lies
I can see it in your lack of surprise
I can see just where the truth doesn't lie
Watching you cut through the bind that ties

Once upon a time a story with a happy end
But that's all in the past now, it's all around the bend
You can't appease me now, those hopeless things you send
And you can't please me now and we can't start again
There's too much history, and no clean sheets
When I get to hear his story, it puts my feet to sleep
It's all romantic nothing about a heart in a rage
Murdered by some cartoon villain who ripped out the last page

Happy ever after, a prince apparent and his bride
All his disarming charm and her unfaithful side
He's scouting for success and she's his girl guide
The day the die was cast, it was the day I died
And now your hips are up for grabs and now the chips are down
I could be jetting with the set instead of with this clown
You want it to be unabridged, all bridges should be burnt
Sometimes you must recross them, that's something you never learnt

There are some tricks you can't pull
I mean the wool that is
Over my eyes
That's what happens when looking for love
Becomes a game of I Spy

I know you're combing someone's hair, or someone's soothing you
A lie may well fool someone else but it tells the truth
About you to you