SONG
It could never be evening here
____You have your choice
________Bright as day day or black as black night
I keep seeing the nature guide everywhere
____He has He-Man muscles and Cinderella hair
________I think he’s real but I don’t really care
No you can’t borrow my sweater
____Though I’m not using it
________And you can’t have a bite of the enormous burger I’m not going to finish
What I assume you can’t assume
____My melodic self is hiding underneath the couch cushions
________Wilting like dinner in a pan
It’s my America and you can’t try it
____What’s the name of the place I’m staying
________Everyone calls it something different
I don’t know if it’s a town or a valley or what
____The names of the grocery store chains
________Or the number of the interstate
The road along the water curls like someone else’s hair
____This ocean is a river
________I can see the other side
Roll up your window
____This car is a box where my voice can grow
________Probably someone will call soon to close a deal
When one of us swaggers through the office
____Big and lucky and smug
________It makes us worried God will come
And when He does
____With his older-than-Old-World anger
________Our smiles and tans will fade
He’ll churn the snow-blessed mountains and break the hikers’ legs
____Or so we’ve heard it said
________Or so we’ve been afraid
And our fear is the shape of everything in the world
____Except what our eyes have seen
____________________________________________Oh I know
Let’s get really drunk and put our love on the table
____And pass around overheard overused moments like moist towelettes
________And hurt each other’s feelings in the morning in abbreviated halting utterances
I can hear the sun
____It’s giving off its qualities
________It sounds like a car giving up
Let’s get inside it
____This car we’re in’s too slow
________And drive it higher than we’re supposed to go
