Elvis Costello

She said “What is it that I’ve done that you want me to be punished”
When she woke up one day to find that he had started to vanish
But if you overhear voices perhaps you should not be listening at all
Twitch the vigilant lace
Make a slow sour face
Set the scandalized whispering

She’s out on her own with the rest of her riches
While the kids paint him out of their refrigerator pictures
She picks up the bill, pays off the babysitter
Cos everybody knows
Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter

Once there was a time before he turned strange
She thought they would be together for more than a lifetime
Look at him now
My how things have changed
He could tear the sweet heart out of any girl
On just a whim
And turn it from a candy to a caramel
And make her hate the silly way she used to feel
And say, “I know nothing about him”

Now what’s left of the birthday cake is very beautifully frosted
An absent father picks up the phone to find the number’s unlisted
But while the kids are distracted
They don’t notice she’s nervous at all
But how long will it take not to make a mistake
When a gentleman comes to call

She’s out on her own with the rest of her riches
As the kids tear down their refrigerator pictures
They already know how a woman may advance
From a pretty picture hat to a supermarket trance
But if he’s unkind
He might as well forget her
Cos everybody knows Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter