[Verse 1]
She smiled in a big way, the way a girl like that smiles
When the world is hers and she held your eyes
Out in the breezeway
Down by the shore in the lazy summer

And she pulled you in
And she bit your lip and she made you hers
She looked deep into you as you lay together
Quiet in the grasp of dusk and summer

[Chorus]
But you've already lost
But you've already lost
But you've already lost
When you only had barely enough to hang on

[Verse 2]
And she combed your hair and she kissed your teeth
And she made you better than you'd been before
She told you bad things
You wished you could change in the lazy summer

And she told you, laughing down to her core
So she would not cry as she lay in your lap
She said, "Nobody here can live forever
Quiet in the grasp of dusk and summer"
[Chorus]
But you've already lost
But you've already lost
But you've already lost
When you only had barely enough to hang on

[Bridge]
She said, "No one is alone the way you are alone"
And you held her looser than you would have
If you ever could have known
Some things tie your life together, slender threads
And things to treasure days like that should last and last and last

[Chorus]
But you've already lost
But you've already lost
But you've already lost
When you only had barely enough of her
To hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on