i traveled vaguely southward 'til i could hear the tide and buried my toes in the sand right by the waterside my friends were laughing all the way to the rocks on down the shore they climbed to the top and then jumped off and then they laughed some more they laughed some more i laughed with them and joked with them and loved them for their fun but i was thinking of you as i watched the setting sun i know i should forget you and never bother hence the brain sees far knows what you are but it's the heart you have to convince

unafraid that you will wake me you come into my bedroom to proclaim that it is morning as if the sun were not enough with your little fingers spread out to repeat against my forehead our bellies full of grain we walk to the end of our street and you want to go left and so we go left you grind the gravel beneath the heel of your black patent leathers and with their scuffed toes you kick at pine cones which you find to be hilarious holding my hand you notice the hole in the knee of your stockings and you put your finger in it getting bigger every minute on the way back home you stop and you do a little dance move staring down at an ant bed one crawls up your leg and you say "i wonder if they dance, too?" hope you grow up to be just like you

yesterday the rain wouldn't stop now the whole world's underwater but not our house it floats on top and there's nothing to do so we gotta we gotta dance we gotta dance float over london and float over france and i guess it's alright that we'll prob'ly die tonight we gotta dance we gotta dance we gotta dance there's no use worrying over your loved ones' whereabouts there's no use caring there's nothing left to care about! 1 2 3 woo! we gotta dance we gotta dance float over jobs and float over pants and i guess it's okay that we won't see another day we gotta dance we gotta dance we gotta dance there is no way we're gonna last very long so we might as well sing a song there is no way that we will make it out alive so we better bust a funky jive bust a funky jive 1 2 3 woo! hey! hey! hey!

when next you see me you won't know me so changed will my countenance be brown of skin and long of hair for i have wed the open sea dear, i loved you fiercely, truly but why, only heaven knows for i was turned out flatly, coldly in favor of what you chose "i love a good long book, dear girl and i love a bed, a cup of tea but no girl will ever snare my heart" is what you said to me so i headed for the harbor snuck aboard the nearest ship earned my calluses and blisters in the ocean's loving grip now i love the smell of early sea-wind truer than any lover's heart and when it beckons i will do my part my fingers will graze horizons you'll be reading milton's prose i'll light fires and send you postcards you'll regret the choice you chose

i can take three steps where you just take one small step i can reach way way high up above me and still you're up there just looking around closer to the sound of airplanes and rain the occasional hot air balloon enthusiast but i think maybe you're dreaming of fields in africa running from lions and tigers and poachers and tourists instead of wasting your time on children with cameras on field trips laughing at the way you're so tall when really they're just small how'd they get to be so small? when i was 10 i took your picture licking my best friend i'm sure you don't remember but that's okay you know i'll prob'ly never come visit 'cause zoos are kinda like prisons and really i'm not down with that but how 'bout when i drive by and i see you i'll wave and it's alright if you don't reciprocate 'cause you don't really have hands and i'll know that you're dreaming of fields in africa running from lions and tigers and poachers and tourists realizing that one day you'll die 'cause it's a circle of life and you know that you're not scared you just want it to be exciting, is all i really hope this isn't all 'cause i know that i'm dreaming of fields in africa and i know it's not likely but if you get out come see me and maybe we can go after all

my best friend moved far away so naturally i have some things to say there's nobody here for me to go to thrift stores with nobody now for me to talk about star wars with nobody to collude with nobody to be subdued with nobody to watch "the last crusade" and eat chinese food with i know that every stage in life comes to a point where it passes on but whose cotton shirt are you gonna wipe your glasses on? i know you had to get the heck out but nobody ever stuck their neck out like you did and though you're at the other end of the country i maintain that no two were ever better suited one day you will get married one day i will get married but it won't be to each other most likely not each other but with any luck we'll all get stuck living together in a big yellow house with a music room and our own private theater and our husbands will be best friends, too and they'll understand the meaning of me and you so they'll leave us alone sometimes so we can read harry potter and spit mad rhymes (such dope rhymes) and the four of us will cook delicious dinners paint pretty pictures go sledding in winters build homes for people that ain't got one knit sweaters for anyone that wants one and our children will be best friends or get married or even both and we'll die ancient on the front porch drinking tea telling jokes this probably won't happen i am prepared for this but for your peace of mind i want you to be aware of this if i ever love a man who confesses late one night that he doesn't like you or after careful consideration decides he doesn't want me to visit you i'll be calm i'll be cool but i am nobody's fool i will drop him like he's hot i will drop him like he's hot so cherie lady cherie can't wait for you to come hang out with me in my tiny apartment in kentucky

every morning i wake up and i drain the contents of my cup while i sit out on my front porch and i wait over yonder like distant drumming i can hear them, hear them coming my friends, my friends and they are never late the dinosaurs trudging, ascending and stomping my way from some far away hill comin' to make my day they are good, they are kind and they always say please and usually bless you whenever i sneeze they wipe their feet on the mat and they keep the yard clean and they don't say things, say things that they don't mean and i know that i can rely on my dinosaur friends apatosaurus is strong and courageous stegosaurus is completely outrageous pachycephalosaurus can't resist a good brawl dromiceiomimus has a tender heart pteranodon is into modern art and utahraptor is a know-it-all t-rex, t-rex he is the king he likes everybody and everything he's funny and silly and very wise and he gives good advice to all the other guys he's proficient in latin and philosophy he likes the brontes, charlotte and emily he's stomped and stomped all over this land but the one thing he can't understand is why we oh we why we say things, say things that we don't mean still i know that i can rely on my dinosaur friends my dinosaur friends they are full of couth and they always, always tell the truth (they are good, they are kind, they are very wise they say nice things and they don't tell lies)

in the winter of my eighth year christmas 1992 we went sledding in our front yard barbie intertubes our dad and me and you it was white out both our noses ran ugly knit hats on our heads up and down our slippery driveway all morning all afternoon our cheeks were red in circles our father turned you out into the empty street where i was walking i was dreaming you spun right into, under my feet i fell on snow i fell on asphalt we screamed and laughed and ran up the hill we went inside we went all over we got big and old and i love you still

after a dinner of tacos and a big glass of cherry coke you walk down to the sidewalk and have yourself a smoke mysterious fireworks framed by the houses across the street you walk down to the stoplight and in the cool night you look at your feet the air is fine, the air is fresh the city's wrapped in its twilight cloak but you are heavy, your steps like lead joined to some clandestine yoke everybody knows that you're tired now there's no use in being discrete things could be better, but things could be worse so get your eyes up off that concrete are you aware of what's up there in the place above your head? or how it goes outside your dark windows when you're sleeping in your bed? out in space the comets race and shake off their cosmic debris propel it here into the atmosphere for the sake of you and me the perseids, the geminids and the quadrantids in the east flying from afar, there are shooting stars at the very least, at the very least we've got meteor showers i know that it's dark as night i know you're lost, i know you're afraid but look up, hold tight! the sky's on fire tonight a meteoric parade and thus, our serenade your boss is mean your friends are making a scene nobody brought you flowers but there are meteor showers your car broke down don't have a friend in the town you can't keep up with the hours but there are meteor showers the dinosaurs died and life is kicking your hide you lost your copy of "the two towers" but there are meteor showers meteor showers

at the end of the day when the purples and pinks start to sink in the ground back behind our house we will wonder and wait on the plans that we make wait and wonder and wait this place is pastel stuccoed bright, stuccoed shut folks like ants walk upright back and forth, back and forth we have feet just the same and this place has a name: "nowhere here, nowhere now" sea encircles the land but you sit on your hands thinking of your poor heart oh alas, oh alas don't worry where he is it's not your problem, it's his if he never saw there are swordfights and ships there's cartwheels and backflips there are mysteries to solve thumbwars yet to be won there are letters to read there are people to feed there's a lot to be done at the end of the day when the paint-flecked sun starts to sink in the ground starts to sink down low let us go we will go