Saying "Avez-vous une allumette?"
with her lips wrapped around a cigarette
Yvette in English saying "Please have this
little bit of instant bliss"

He's struggling with a foreign tongue
Reaching for words and drawing blanks
A loud mouth is stricken deaf and dumb
in a bistro on the left bank

"If I were a painter" Picasso said
"I'd paint this girl from toe to head"
Yvette in English saying "Please have this
little bit of instant bliss"

Burgundy nocturne tips and spills
They move along nicely in the spreading stain
New chills, new thrills for the old uphill battle
How did he wind up here again

Walking, talking, touched and scared
Uninsulated wires bared
Yvette in English saying "Please have this
little bit of instant bliss"

What blew her like a leaf this way
Up in the air and down to earth
First she flusters then she frays
So quick to question her own worth

Her cigarette burns her fingertips
It falls like fireworks, she curses it
Sweetly in English she says "Please have this
little bit of instant bliss"

He sees her turn and walk away
Skittering like a cat on a stone
High heeels clicking what a wary little stray
She leaves him by the Seine alone

With black water and amber lights
A boney bridge between left and right
Yvette in English saying "Please have this
little bit of instant bliss"

David Crosby   "Thousand Roads"
Atlantic Records   1993