Happens to the Heart - Leonard Cohen (2019)

 

I was always working steady 

But I never called it art 

I got my shit together 

Meeting Christ and reading Marx 

It failed my little fire 

But it’s bright the dying spark 

Go tell the young messiah 

What happens to the heart 

There’s a mist of summer kisses 

Where I tried to double-park 

The rivalry was vicious 

The women were in charge 

It was nothing, it was business 

But it left an ugly mark 

I’ve come here to revisit 

What happens to the heart 

I was selling holy trinkets 

I was dressing kind of sharp 

Had a pussy in the kitchen 

And a panther in the yard 

In the prison of the gifted 

I was friendly with the guards 

So I never had to witness 

What happens to the heart

 

I should have seen it coming 

After all I knew the chart 

Just to look at her was trouble 

It was trouble from the start 

Sure we played a stunning couple 

But I never liked the part 

It ain't pretty, it ain't subtle 

What happens to the heart 

Now the angel’s got a fiddle 

The devil’s got a harp 

Every soul is like a minnow 

Every mind is like a shark 

I’ve broken every window 

But the house, the house is dark 

I care but very little 

What happens to the heart 

Then I studied with this beggar 

He was filthy, he was scarred 

By the claws of many women 

He had failed to disregard 

No fable here no lesson 

No singing meadowlark 

Just a filthy beggar guessing 

What happens to the heart 

I was always working steady 

But I never called it art 

It was just some old convention 

Like the horse before the cart 

I had no trouble betting 

On the flood, against the ark 

You see, I knew about the ending 

What happens to the heart

I was handy with a rifle 

My father’s .303

I fought for something final 

Not the right to disagree