This song is unique - a beautiful lament to a lost lover, the pain of a heart-shattering breakup epitomised in a trampled rose, which the narrator finds in the street muddy. The song is the most overt evidence I've discovered in Tom's work of his rightful status as a poet, and a beat peot. The beautifully and unconventionaly formed sentences ('piano from a window played') really do impress. There is also some great, typically-tom waits, poetic imagery - 'blind man with a cup I asked, if he'd play 'Kisses Sweeter Than Wine'. The music is a delight too. Worth buying Real Gone even if this was only this song on it.