How Shall I Express Myself Tonight?

Beautiful Overdrive

She's dressed up like a car crash--
the wheels are turning, but she's upside-down.
She took a green light to a pack of cigarettes;
but she doesn't smoke, doesn't even want to.

I took a red light into the gray morning,
trying my best to stay as faraway as you stayed close.
I slept with a friend who came back for more,
before I realized I had overstayed my while in exile.

Driving under the bridges that man built,
symbols of hope that there's somewhere to go to,
we saw the darkness of the underside.
She's my companion, just for tonight, like store-bought love.

You really shouldn't give me that drink, Barkeep;
There I go! not even old enough to hold
the glass in one hand (Bartender, please).
Set me free with the wine you gave Jesus (after three days in the ground).

You've got me by my guitar strings,
played melodically, beautifully by the shine in your eyes.
It's love--will you be there when it happens?
I'm blown over by every breeze and every short breath...

Yet there's a deepness to the purple tone of her voice,
carried away by the sounds of reality, and the mad day.
I can hear you--I can hear the sadness when I drive alone,
Driving another moonlight mile without you.

I'd rather not get stuck in the practical. The kids all say,
"What a drag." I'll sing for you if you want me to. (Or maybe I'll just turn up the radio.)
I knew happiness once, but once stolen, could never be found again...
Unless returned. The guitar just needs a little tuning. Scanning.

But now she's accelerating from the darkness in the night,
Moving just to stand still--what a girl--what a world.
She only sees one way out: got to cry without weeping,
talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice.

I'm only watching my own rearview, looking inside the walls of my skull.
I'm looking back in anger at the cortex of wiring;
since when did everything get so tangled up inside my head?
She knows it's too late as we're switching lanes, passing on by.

So I'm hanging around downtown by myself, thinking.
Why is here no? Here is no why? Is why no here? No here why is!
Streetcars and redlights float by like silence, the world turns,
as I sit still at a table on the sidewalk, a cup of coffee sipping me.

Looking up through the open moonroof is like watching the world disappear,
and staring God in the face. Pleased to meet you.
How are things running? Everything's going smoothly I take it.
Glad you could spare a minute. Thanks for everything.

All of it happens to us at this intersection of our lives,
where Highway 61 crosses Main Street; you pulled up your car
next to mine, red in your eyes, 3 a.m. Through tinted windows,
we understood how much we get wrapped up in the pleasures of the world.

But your light turns green, and I slide slowly back in silence like a shadow,
As the world passes you by, blurring lights off into the night,
A swirling starry night.

Look how they shine for you.