In A City Of Light

You hear a solo guitar
being played
in a city of light

Then imagine somewhere
in a garden
nearby

Someone
dressed to kill
is dancing alone

Because longing
took over 
their dreams

Which turned hard 
as a coastline
soaked in spray

and roused them
to try and dance
back into sleep

While
in a bar
not too far away

Someone’s drinking
their third Scotch
of the night

Wishing things
were different and they were
still open to touch

This is not the life
they once imagined
they’d live

A life
beyond vanilla
to make church people cry

For their vision
of heaven that was mostly
flat plain and white

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (instr. break)

Listening
to music
You start to cry

You can feel
something coming
that smells like a grave

Hope is exhausting
when hope 
is all that you have

to get
from dark to dawn
and then through the day

Go to sleep
past dusk
then wake up in a sweat

Your picture of the future
turning
so flat plain and white

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (instr. break)

Four Scotches in
Shut off 
They go stumbling home

Stops to lean 
on the brick wall
of a garden nearby

On the other side
a dancer
continues to twirl

and the drunkard
starts humming
as they close their eyes

while this song
they don’t know
continues to play

The dancer 
and the drunkard
so close in this city of light

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (instr. coda)

They never meet
Hope fails again
Their dreams collapse
Into flat plain and white