Sappho, Casanova and the Marquis de Sade
Drove up the hill to call a conference with God
They said, "Lord, what is this plague laying waste to the state?
It came a little after lust and just before hate"
God said, "A kiss is just a mouth before it's learned how to bite
And a caress is just a fist before it's learned how to fight
And love is just loss before it's learned it's too late
It comes a littler after lust and just before hate"
O, we stuttered our rhymes, we cut our crimes in the skin
We taught the flesh to drink all the ink we wrote them in
We confessed ourselves in swellings where the needle agitates
Where we pierced past lust and came just short of hate
And remorse is just a decadence, it won't get you acquitted
And your guilt don't make you good, girl
It just makes you uncommitted
See, we cut our crimes in history, we hand-picked our fate
Sometime a little after lust and just before hate
Now the skin turns to parchment as the years slip behind
And a man forgets the flesh and turns to crimes of the mind
So he goes back down to stack his guns by the gate
That sits a little past lust and just before hate