Lyrics
Everyone dated the demise of our neighborhood
From the suicide of the Lisbon girls
People saw their clairvoyance in the wipeout elms
And the harsh sunlight
Some thought the tortures tearing the Lisbon girls
Point to a simple refusal to accept the world
As it was handed down to them
So full of flaws
But the only thing we are certain of after all these years
Is the insufficiency of explanation
(Obviously, doctor you've never been a 13 year old girl)
The Lisbon girls were
13, Cecilia
14, Lux
15, Bonnie
16, Mary
And 17, Therese
No one could understand how
Mrs. Lisbon and Mr. Lisbon, our math teacher
Had produced such beautiful creatures
From that time on the Lisbon house began to change
Almost everyday
And even when she wasn't keeping an eye on Cecilia
Lux would suntan on her towel
Wearing a swimsuit that caused the knife sharpener
To give her 15 minute demonstration for free
The only reliable boy who got to know Lux was Trip Fontaine
Who only 18 months before the suicides
Had emerged from baby fat
To the delight of girls and mothers alike
But few anticipated it would be so drastic
The girls were pulled out of school
And Mrs. Lisbon shut the house in maximum security isolation
The girls only contact with the outside world
Was through the catalogs they ordered
That started to fill the Lisbon's mailbox
With pictures of high-end fashions
And brochures for exotic vacations
Unable to go anywhere
The girls traveled in their imaginations
To gold tipped Siamese temples, or past an old man with a leaf broom
Tiding a moss-carpeted speck of Japan
And Cecilia hadn't died
She was a bride in Calcutta
Collecting everything we could of theirs
We couldn't get the Lisbon girls out of our minds
But they were slipping away
The colors of their eyes were fading
Along with exact locations of moles and dimples
From five they had become four
And they were all living in the dead
Becoming shadows
We would have lost them completely
If the girls hadn't contacted us
Lux was the last to go
Fleeing from the house we had forgot to stop at the garage
After the suicide free-for-all
Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon gave up any attempt to lead a normal life
They had Mr. Hedley pack up the house
Selling what furniture he could in a garage sales
Everyone went just to look
Our parents did not buy used furniture
And they certainly didn't buy furniture tainted by death
We, of course, took the family photos that were put out with the trash
Mr. Lisbon put the house on the market
And it was sold to a young couple from Boston
It didn't matter in the end how old they had been
Or that they were girls
But only that we had loved them
And they hadn't heard us calling
Still do not hear us
Calling them out of those rooms
Where they went to be alone for all time
Alone in suicide
Which is deeper than death
And where we will never find the pieces
To put them back together
