The Simple Joy

I can barely tell the cattle roads from the chem trails of our past lives

from this here cloud where I now stand

my skull was a dunk tank clown for some schoolyard lass to chastise

my ribcage was a looney bin built to keep my heart out of her hands

I keep busy in the daytime charging glowworms

joys less simple seem to feel like child's play now

perhaps the love we had was not what made the globe turn

but more akin, in fact, to what made the cows lay down

ohh, the simple joy (ohh, the simple joy)

home was close, death was hard, friends were both

you can't put a sticker price on hurt

trust is a flower that is toxic to some and it grows from beneath

I learned that time was not my friend nor my foe more like one of the guys from work

life was safe if you could crack it or not and I slapped the factory clock with a rose in my teeth

the those who helped grow me didn't know me kind of lonely nearly landed a kill-shot

til I grew up and started living alone

now you could spell R.I.P. in limestone on a hilltop

with the sediment they cried when I didn't come home

ohh, the simple joy ohh, the simpler loneliness

I've been yankin' business cards from community boards since I was a boy

now I'm trading my doubles for the circuit judge's home address

bump the farmhouse hum, up the city noise

are we getting any closer to me knowing what the point of this is

the point of all these simple joys the point of all these simpler lonelinesses

I got a name for every one my dollars, not counting what's in the car seats

I numbered out a list of miscellaneous reasons to explain why I'm leaving not counting the reasons unclear

if you need a proper goodbye, I could still catch the last bus to Marcy's

but you could train a parrot to do what we do when we end up there

squawkin' all night about the simple joy talkin' all night about the simpler loneliness

cause it's only at night that the farmhouse confides in the city noise

and tonight it feels I'm only feeling with the feelings that I don't express

who does this life think it is to deprive its contestants of joy

how you gonna pit a Vietnam vet against a measly cigarette that still somehow ain't killed him

how can it be there's such an infinite payroll that one's loneliness employs

who am I to try to shut a country singer's mouth when theyre still singin' about Hank Williams

I can barely tell the cattle roads from the chem trails of our past lives

from this here cloud where I now stand

my ribcage was what but a looney bin built to keep my deranged heart out of your hands

I was hardly known to god, much less those who had sought to make their home in a bullseye

'til I grew older and I started travelin' on

now you could spell R.I.P. in limestone on a hillside

with the sediment they cried since I've been gone

ohh, the simple joy ohh, the simpler loneliness

I've been yankin' business cards from community boards since I was a boy

now I'm trading my doubles for the circuit judge's home address

a simple loneliness'll do and they can throw me in the S.H.U. for all I care

I'll tell em everything I know about the simple joy and I won't plead the fifth

I'll run what's left of the clock down doing push-ups and cheating at solitaire

singin' all night about the simpler lonelinesses

singin' all night about the simple joy