Follies movie - COULD I LEAVE YOU? lyrics

rate me

PHYLLIS:

Leave you? Leave you?

How could I leave you?

How could I go it alone?

Could I wave the years away

With a quick goodbye?

How do you wipe tears away

When your eyes are dry?

Sweetheart, lover,

Could I recover,

Give up the joys I have known?

Not to fetch your pills again

Every day at five,

Not to give those dinners for ten

Elderly men

From the U.N.--

How could I survive?

Could I leave you

And your shelves of the World's Best Books

And the evenings of martyred looks,

Cryptic sighs,

Sullen glares from those injured eyes?

Leave the quips with a sting, jokes with a sneer,

Passionless lovemaking once a year?

Leave the lies ill-concealed

And the wounds never healed

And the games not worth winning

And-wait, I'm just beginning!

What, leave you, leave you,

How could I leave you?

What would I do on my own?

Putting thoughts of you aside

In the south of France,

Would I think of suicide?

Darling, shall we dance?

Could I live through the pain

On a terrace in Spain?

Would it pass? It would pass.

Could I bury my rage

With a boy half your age

In the grass? Bet your ass.

But I've done that already--or didn't you know, love?

Tell me, how could I leave when I left long ago, love?

Could I leave you?

No, the point is, could you leave me?

Well, I guess you could leave me the house,

Leave me the flat,

Leave me the Braques and Chagalls and all that.

You could leave me the stocks for sentiment's sake

And ninety percent of the money you make.

And the rugs

And the cooks--

Darling, you keep the drugs.

Angel, you keep the books,

Honey, I'll take the grand,

Sugar you keep the spinet

And all of our friends and--

Just wait a goddam minute!

Oh, leave you? Leave you?

How could I leave you?

Sweetheart, I have to confess:

Could I leave you?

Yes.

Will I leave you?

Will I leave you?

Guess!

Thanks to Crypria for correcting these lyrics