Week 2: Argument for literary value (Minus The Bear)
Burying Luck
In the nightmare desert stood a building.
Outside someone was diggin' a hole in the ground.
They were burying my luck.
What have you done?
The man in the hole has smoked up all my income.
My better days, his for the take.
And I watched it all:
him putting pins into a doll.
What have you done?
This dream fades into night
The man in the hole has carried away the moonlight
Cupped in his hands, a dime on the water
He's a patient man,
As his careful stepping shows
Will he take her love?
Will his hands know what mine did?
Will her body like the fit?
Will he take her love?
What have you done?
.................................
In the first verse, the singer paints the image of a man outside a building, digging a hole, to bury his luck. His luck, to him, is defined as another body, and, in his eyes, another man is killing a part of him, his lucky side. He asks his luck what he's done, to have this man want his life. "The man in the hole has smoked up all my income" means that his 'lucky side', which is in the dug hole, at this point, has spent all his money/value. "My better days; his for the take" means that all of the days that were great for him, were all 'lucky' days. He was 'putting pins into a doll' or, putting a curse on himself (not "luck").
The dream 'fades into the night'. The moon eventually is carried away, its dark. The man in the hole ("Luck") has a 'dime on the water' cupped in his hands, or a perfect woman attached to him, because he is patient, as his careful stepping shows, not to spill her out of his cupped hands. So, when he buries his luck, he buries her interest in him, wonders if she will notices the difference, 'if his hands will know what they did when he was "Luck"'.