Love aside

Measure me in metered lines and one decisive stare The time it takes to get from here to there My ribs that show through t-shirts and these shoes I got for free I'm unconsoled, I'm lonely I am so much better than I used to be Terrified of telephones and shopping malls and knives And drowning in the pools of other lives Rely a bit too heavily on alcohol and irony Get clobbered on by courtesy In love with love and lousy poetry And I'm leaning on this broken fence Between past and present tense And I'm losing all those stupid games That I swore I'd never play But it almost feels okay Circumnavigate this body of wonder and uncertainty Armed with every precious failure and amateur cartography I'm breathing deep before I spread those maps out on my bedroom floor And I'm leaning on this broken fence Between past and present tense And I'm losing all those stupid games That I swore I'd never play But it feels okay And I'm leaving with goodbye And I'm losing but I'll try With the last ways left to remember, sing My imperfect offering

Mom and daddy traveled around Preaching and teaching the gospel We settled down in a shitty town Only broken home and a bible, yeah-yeah I've been everywhere since then I saw what really mattered Now when I look back on all that pain It brings me laughter I'm in love with the sweet, sweet, sweet sunshine Ain't no fool And it's time for me to take what's mine Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh It's time Is mine All mine, yeah Step aside Step aside All my friends went to college Then got jobs and kids and wives But I found peace in this guitar Gonna play it 'til I die Still in love with the sweet, sweet, sweet sunshine Ain't no fool And it's time for me to take what's mine Yeah, yeah, yeah It's time Is mine All mine Step aside I'm in love with the sweet, sweet, sweet sunshine Ain't no fool And it's time for me to take what's mine, oh It's time Is mine All mine Step aside, yeah It's time Is mine, yeah All mine Step aside

By the cathedral into the sun Pilgrims are singing their journey done I look at my short life and think Of all the champagne that I drink With all the faces that I know And how much further can one go? And if I decide To step aside I will try to reply to The feelings I hide I look from my window down to the square At workers still queuing patiently there For market forces to provide What history's so far denied For a different kind of fate Than to labor long and always wait And if I decide To step aside I will try to return to The person inside Will I always need you? Would you want me to? Can you love me for good The way you thought you could? Or will spring bring rain and summer burn? Will tears at last precede the turn From summer warmth to sudden cold As certainly as growing old? And if I decide To step aside I will try to forget all The tears, I'll have cried