Every Time

We’re dancing

At the wedding

My feet hurt

Your cologne

Has somehow

Worn off

And between

The two of us

We’ve checked on

Your mom and the kids

Seven or eight times

But we’re dancing

At the wedding

Somebody--probably the bride

Probably my best friend, the bride

Told the DJ

To play ‘Every Time’

And so now

We’re dancing

We’re slow-dancing

To ‘Every Time’

I hear that song

And I am twenty-three again

In the very first apartment I had

After graduating college

My phone is buzzing

And it’s you

Asking if I’m going

To be on time

For once

You learn to love

The things about a person

That drive everybody else crazy

Not because they don’t

Drive you crazy

But because you’ll go even crazier

If you don’t find

Something the bad stuff

That turns you on

So I take my time

And I tell myself

That when I’m a few minutes later

Than even I feel comfortable with

It’ll just put that extra

Pep in your step

I remember getting ready

And thinking about

How I was never going to do

So many things

Get married

Have kids

You and me

We could mess around

And keep it light

And I would grow old

In a little apartment

With a few grand

In credit card debt

And only one window

That opens

All the way

Making it unlivable

In the summertime

I was never going

To have a house

To have a mortgage

To have a furnace

And then a broken furnace

And then a new furnace

But that night

I was going to be late

There was a knock on the door

And when I opened it up

It was you

And you were holding flowers

And--more importantly--

Thai take-out

From the place

That was always closed

Whenever I was

Really craving it

And, you know,

Sometimes you look

At someone

And you think--

I have to marry

This idiot, don’t I?

And that’s what I thought

I thought I was going

To have to marry you

Because I’d be an idiot

To pretend we weren’t already

Stuck together

Even without rings

And ceremonies

Now here we are

And it’s been ten years

And people keep asking us

How we make it work

Because now another two people

Have gone and decided

They’re going

Down the same road

I don’t know what we tell

These people

Who look at us

And feel impressed

At our matrimonial accomplishment

Because all I hear

Is Janet

Singing about how every time

She swears it’s not going to be one way

That’s always

The way it goes