The word I heard—cream in your coffee, hon
the word I heard—nothing is easy, hon
the word I heard—seeing is believing, hon
the word I heard—you're gonna crash and burn
the word I heard—round trip or one way, hon
the word I heard—how long you gonna stay, hon
the word I heard—careful what you say, hon
the word I heard in front of the infant nation
if I'd know you'd be an astronaut
who'd figured you'd grow up to be an astronaut
I'd been a stone mason
if I'd known you'd grow up to be a messenger
who'd figured you'd turn out to be a messenger
if I'd know you'd been a messenger
I'd been a firefighter
things never have been wronger or righter
things have never been hotter or brighter
I keep waking up, I'm halfway there
I live my life just barely aware
I'm living the merciless
I'm living in the irrevocable
I'm living in a headlock
I'm living in the unforgiving
just about right here
I'm always just about right now
I live in the right here I live in the right now
I keep waking up
after I get done waking up
I get to peeling
I get to cracking up
I get to blistering
I get to twistering
I start to bend and break
I start to lurch and lunge
I start to bolster and brace
I start to crave and cringe
I keep waking up, I'm halfway there
I live my life just barely aware
I'm always just about right here
I'm always just about right now
I don't sense time elapsing
awash in the action
we put our feet against the jungle
we put the corn in the car
we waited for the roads to spread
we dove under and we fashioned
presidents from carbon and water
ownership was an inside job
like rainbows from atoms
like a soothing balm
smeared on a dead branch
like a mountain born
of a single thrust
like hair around the mouth
like buoyant external lungs
like bush scrub and sandstone
like trumpet dust
like a genetic pact
like conceived borders fortified
like nothing personal