What a Shame About Me 
(track 02 from the Two Against Nature LP by Steely Dan )
![Steely Dan's "Two Against Nature" album art. [Formatted]](http://unwisdom.org/chadspace/wp-content/uploads/steely-dan-000000-formatted.jpg)
I was grinding through my day gig—stacking cutouts at The Strand—when in walks Franny from NYU, we were quite an item back then
We talked about her films and shows and CDs, and I don’t know what else
She said, “Yeah, Hollywood’s been good to me, but tell me how about yourself?”
“I’m still working on that novel, but I’m just about to quit.
Because I’m worrying about the future now, or maybe this is it.
It’s not all that I thought it would be.”
“What a shame about me”
She said, “Talk to me, do you ever see anybody else from our old crew?
Bobby Dakine won the Bunsen Prize and now he’s coming out with something new.
Alan owns a chain of Steamer Heavens and Barry is a software king.
Somebody told me in the early 80’s you were gonna be the next big thing.”
“Well now, that was just a rumor, but I guess I’m doing fine.
Three weeks out of the rehab, living one day at a time.
Sneaking up on the new century.”
“What a shame about me”
I’m thinking of a major Jane Street sunrise and the goddess on the fire escape was you
We both ran out of small talk, the connection seemed to go dead
I was about to say, “Hey, have a nice life,” when she touched my hand and said:
“I just had this great idea—it could be very cool—why don’t we grab a cab to my hotel and make believe we’re back at our old school.”
I said, “Babe, you look delicious and you’re standing very close, but like this is Lower Broadway and you’re talking to a ghost.
Take a good look it’s easy to see, what a shame about me.”
“What a shame about me”