Why read a book?
Someone’s ideas. Somebody made up everything,
may as well make up my own.
I guess I’ve gotten used to this, I gotta get on the road.
Three more days and I’ll be moving mountains.

Taught myself, why it’s different.
Taught or given, gifts get thrifted.
I don’t believe there are lessons for this,
not until I’m through, and look back.

Maybe I’d write it down,
how to avoid the most bizarre stuff around.
Don’t think they’d believe it.
Nobody’d believe it.
How is it so different?

Half myself, what is that?
Am I the ball? Am I the bat?
In control from different directions.
I sail, I come and I go, bare with me.
Gets windy.

Why read a book?
Somebody made up everything.
Figure it out as I go,
what other way to know for certain that I know?

Stuck inside a dress that doesn’t fit,
little too big on the hips.
Out back broke a slipper.
Smashed it on a sidewalk.

On a stoop, in the evening, under a street light
thinking cigarettes and wigs are gonna kill me.
What am I doing?
Where am I going, and where did she go?
Who is mistaken and who really knows?
What am I doing?

Ball gown dreamer hides behind a mask,
answering the questions he asks himself.
Wonders if everybody else is always thinking,
says he’s got it figured out.

Walked outside, a dress that screamed so loud.
Little too big of a crowd
in front, broken records.
Silence on a stairwell.

Funny where this all can take us.
Crazy how time chooses sides.
Wild how nothing could break us,
get through it and feel more alive.

Why is it all simple? What’s the hardest part?
Changing to get happy, or living out our art?
Why do I still do this? Why can’t I let go?
How is it that they don’t see what I have tried to show?

Considers all the questions he asks,
drops a dress, takes off his mask.
Tucks himself in singing,
‘I’ll wake up in the morning.’

I was driving, headin’ east.
She sat shotgun, sleepin’ right next to me.
I was talkin’, whispering,
She dreamed as I breathed ‘I’m pretty sure I’m in love.’

New Mexico, dirt road, we were flying.
Left the pools,
monks on mountaintops poured some coffee
and I couldn’t help but laugh.

Give it all up to follow something they’ll never see.
Listen to a guy try to play a CD.
Start the video, oh technology.
Just building all day, believing whatever they say.
Get a haircut, ring a bell, best behavior,
when the strangers arrive.
This guy only wants more money.

Got him going and we left.
Grabbed a coffee cup and a bag and got out,
before we went to watch the stars, floating.

I was hummin’, driving north.
She was waking up, yawning ‘what am I leaving for?’
We were smilin’, just one more.
She leaned in, left me knowing our lives would collide.

Windshield wipers wouldn’t work on that ride home.
That storm spilled right on my sleeve.
Space isn’t leaving,
it’s us collecting us ‘til we leave this space behind.

Stumbling down Houdini’s hatch,
a poor man says, ‘That’s the last time I’ll do that.
I gotta start escaping.
1899,
new century’s dancing right there in the distance.

Put me in a straitjacket.
I gotta lose these cuffs.
I’d buy the Queen’s dress,
disappear and get me out of this mess.’

Imitated tricks get trashed,
a rich man says, ‘Well, it was only one crash.
I gotta fly Down Under.
Come on, friend of mine,
leave legacy, magic flickers in the distance.

Guess I’ll ditch this prison van.
I gotta hold my breath.
I’d watch my mom smile,
vanish, hide me in Harlem for a while.’

Water-filled milk can, give me a whale.
Little more than three minutes.
You don’t believe in magic do you?
Goodbye elephant,
we can escape from it all.

‘It rang me up in Detroit,
came from a few floors above me.’

Wherever you are tonight,
I hope you’re happy.
Hope you’re filled.
If you’re not, just come my way.
I’ve got so much, I spill.

Overflowing with love.
Overflowing with things I never could get enough of.
Like it was there all along,
I just heard the same songs differently.
Suppose I listen differently.
Learn a little differently.

Shine, please.
You know I know what’s in you.
Shine, please.
When you do, it’s all I see,
and there’s too much left here to leave.

Whatever you’re doing tonight,
I hope you’re smiling.
That wherever you are, you’re good.
If you’re not, just come my way,
we’ll figure out what could.

Live wild, and so patiently.
Learned I learn things differently,
I let me get the best of me,
when I hide inside the rest of me.
Whatever you’re doing tonight.

Car shows in bed, she paints with diamonds, her blue.
He looks to a rooftop he once knew,
‘I’ve already proved I’ll change the manifest for you.’

Said I didn’t get those. Made him all crazy.
Said he’s a lot of things, his normal’s out a ways, see?
Ups and downs always breathe, they’re part of this.
Waves, we ride them. However you wanna say it.

Lying in bed, she sings, ‘I complain to you.’
Remembering rooftops, before blues.
‘I’ve said this already, it’s like it doesn’t get through.’

Said I didn’t get that. Made her all crazy.
Said she’s a lot of things, but she is not a phase to me.
Leaves know roots breathe, so they drop to them.
Trees, we climb them. However you wanna say it.

Twisting ‘til changed weather.
They ran until they flew together.
They flipped the scene when it unreeled.
They found the things they couldn’t steal.

Dancing like doorstops, kicked skipping hopscotch.
Winding down the straight and narrow,
she hit his heart with her love’s arrow.

Rooftops echoed with smiles that they missed.
Sunrise simmering for years,
the day’s yearning to begin.

Battery’s dead, but they’re dreaming.
Talking about pumps and drugs with a best friend,
It had been too long since I talked to him.

Warranty’s good and I’m gleaming.
Lobbies and passing by people, on the phone.
It’d been too long since we talked like that.

Look at you not lookin’ at the grapes.
Look at her not lookin’ this way.
A call and a come back,
when you’re rested and ready.
Never in too deep, this seat is always waiting.

Just calling to see how you’re doing.

Somewhere Midwest, but a signal.
Wrote about albums and love with a best friend.
Think it’s been too long since I talked to her.

Somewhere between gold and purple.
I hope you’re smiling at the phone.
Wonder how long ‘til we talk like that.

Look at you not lookin’ at the grapes.
Look at her not lookin’ this way.
A call and a come back,
when you’re rested and ready.
Never in too deep, this seat is always waiting.

Just calling to see how you’re doing.
I think who you are is amazing.
What if one of these days
we just went back a few years?
What if,
one of these days.