in a town where you can sum up every girl with just one sentence give or take the subject or the verb she shows up like the devil said penance won't nothin ever be clear no more she got hired on down at the Last Chance Diner she works all the same shifts as me i've never been one for too much conversation but now i choose my words so carefully because the angle of her cheek is the math of persuasion first time you saw the ocean she's got tucked behind her knee she is swallowing lightning she is spittin thunder waftin' California reekin' Tennessee she is waftin' California and reekin' Tennessee i wanna tell her how i feel but each time that i start my tongue wraps like a tether ball six times around my heart (and i say) hey Miss Ferguson it's Cory from work callin to say hey Miss Ferguson i was wonderin' what you were doing a little later on today now i'm curious to see just where them 8 pounds will end up i wanna be around to watch the Southern kick in ain't got no purple heart, no blue ribbon blow out them candles and i'll show you where i've been now she comes around at midnight like a Sunday afternoon with a purpose and a manner like a needle and a spoon a bad thing waitin' 'round to happen like a lake of gasoline the way that woman does me is like nothing i've ever seen don't think i'll ever wake up on the wrong side of her bed she brings the sun, she brings the shine these days every time i try and start to sing some sad song i open up my mouth and the only word that i can find is just sha-la-la-la, sha-la-la-la-la-la-la ... hey there Miss Ferguson, it's me