After Evelyn

I was remembering the days

We lost in the haze

Of youth and sex and gunsmoke

 

Brought the music down

From our small Ontario town

And dreamed for years and never awoke

 

I’ve given my voice

To a thousand dark rooms

When the only other thing to give was light

 

I’ve given you a choice

A thousand different moons

You always seemed to stay the night

 

But this record’s gonna do it

I’d say and you’d keep your cool

I know I can’t plan it

And you know I’m no fool

No more borrowed microphone

No more shaky bar stool

I’ve got the soft seats in my sight

 

But still I’m afraid

I wouldn’t know what to say

If everyone here stopped to listen

I’ve lived so long on hope

At the end of my rope

I’m afraid the other end’s gone missin’

 

The priests of the bars

And the half-dead wanna-be stars

Have been takin’ my notes for a lifetime

 

I’m young enough to know it can turn

But too old to ever learn

How to change a lost penny into a dime

 

So what I’m tryin’ to say

Is I remember the day

You shone on me from a crowd

 

But mine is a life

made for song and then silence

And you should be livin’ out loud

 

I came to say this to you

Lost in the blue

Of a saxophone playin’ at midnight

To my empty bed

And though you’ve already said

Goodbye, my lover, that’s alright…