Annotated lyrics for The Hold Steady song 'Unpleasant Breakfast' - Every morning we burn the bread / Walk it down to the waters edge / See the seagulls eat cigarettes / Check your breath in a spoon / All your stuff in the storage shed / Twisted sheets on the trundle bed / And the anti-psychosis meds / Made you feel all marooned / Last summer at the shore when I was working cleaning carpets / At some hotel that was haunted by some sailor who supposedly was murdered / After losing all his treasure in the harbor / That's back when I found romance in these ghosts / I was honestly more bothered by the hundred miles of hallways / Than the clanking of the shackles or the shadows in the doorway / And we snuck into the ballroom and made echoes in it's empty / And I grabbed you and I spun you and we both just started laughing / All the burns on the windowsill / Says she's crazy about horses still / All these anti-psychosis pills / So much power and grace / Up there on South Ocean View / All the shells made me think of you / We bought into a three for two / And a strawberry shake / First it's April then it's August / It's the cost of doing business / You were scared and over cautious / The whole breakfast was unpleasant / You just can't keep throwing up and then cover it with sawdust / And expect us not to notice and pretend it didn't happen / Last summer at the shoreline / When you walked into the water / Went out up to your waistline / And turned back to face the camera / Rolled your eyes back in their sockets / Then you raised your middle fingers / Defiant and undamaged / That's when I took the picture / And this year we were standing / Looking out off the veranda / You said, 'Yeah, I guess it's pretty / But I'm a shell of what I once was' / That girl in last year's picture / Is now haunting her own hallways / I no longer see the romance in these ghosts / This coffee's cold, this toast is gross / I no longer see the romance in these ghosts