A Song To Pass The Time

There is a middle-aged woman dragging her feet

She carries baskets of clothes to a laundromat

While the Mexican children kick rocks into the street

And they laugh in a language I don't understand

But I love them

Why do I love them

So the neighborhood is dimming as I smoke on the porch

And watch the people as they pass enclosed inside their cars

And on their faces just anger or disappointment

I start wishing there was something I could offer them

A consolation what could I offer them

When they are sad in their suburbs robots water the lawn

And everything they touch gets dusted spotless

So they start to believe that they haven't touched anything at all

While the cars in the driveway only multiply

They are lost in their houses

I have heard them sing in the shower

And making speeches to their sister on the telephone

Saying You come home

Darling you come here

Don't stay so far away from me

This weather has me wanting love more tangible

Something I can hold because it's getting cold

So lets hold up our fists to the flame in the sky

To block out the light that is reaching for our eyes

Because it would blind us It will blind us

Now I have locked my actions in the grooves of routine

So I may never be free of this apathy

But I wait for a letter that is coming to me

She sends me pictures of the ocean in an envelope

So there still is hope

Yes I can be healed

There is someone looking for what I concealed in my secret drawer

In my pockets deep

You will find the reasons that I can't sleep and you will still want me

But will you still want me

Well I say come for the week

You can sleep in my bed

And then pass through my life like a dream through my head

It will be easy I will make it easy

But all I have for the moment is a song to pass the time

A melody to keep me from worrying

Oh some simple progression to keep my fingers busy

And some words that are sure to come back to me and they will be laughing

My mediocrity My mediocrity