Killing Her Slowly With Her Song
Phil Mills, November 2009
TTTO: Killing Me Softly With His Song
      by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox

I heard she wrote a good song,
I couldn't leave that be
And so I changed the lyric
To make a parody,
And there I was, with sad farce:
Much stranger than was wise.

Bringing her pain with my scansion
Giving her grief with my rhymes
Killing her slowly with her song
Killing her slowly with her song
Missing the whole point, in wrong time,
Killing it slowly...her own song.

I tracked her to a circle.
Embarrassed? No, not me!
I sat among my betters and
Sang as if in key.
I knew how her song finished
But made mine twice as long.

Bringing her pain with my scansion
Giving her grief with my rhymes
Killing her slowly with her song
Killing her slowly with her song
Missing the whole point, in wrong time,
Killing it slowly...her own song.

There was a time I wrote songs,
Original and true.
I thought they'd been forgotten.
I thought that no one knew.
But then I heard her sweet voice,
Singing words all wrong.

Bringing me pain with her scansion
Giving me grief with her rhymes
Killing me slowly with my song
Killing me slowly with my song
Missing the whole point, in wrong time,
Killing it slowly…my own song.