Liora's Journal: A Paul Kotheimer song for smiling...

can you see us, in your big blue car,
driving backward over mountains,
dressed up in our superhero pajamas?
well I'm proposing just that kind of adventure
in which the two of us first fold out some lawnchairs
first stop is the scrubgrass down by Hwy 12
and watch the orange sherbert sun
melt down into the lake, which is quicksilver...

and we'll sit and we'll think
and we'll know that we're small
and it's gone in a blink
and when we catch our breaths we'll remember

that we're writing a song
a song about everything
not just some ditty for kids to sing
when they hear it on the radio someday

well this is absolutely ordinary
the two of us, jobless, homeless
rich beyond our wildest fantasies
and we've got some fantasies, let me tell you, fact
nobody we know's never been paralyzed by their dreams
or their addictions
at one time or another in their lives
but still none of us is a grownup
to hell with the grownups we say
with their atom-bashing, soul-smashing machines

and then we close our eyes
and we visualize
that we're carving utopia down to the size
of a song

a song about everything
like when you showed me your grandma's ring
and said why not put that in a song
and we're singing along

to a wordless piece of jazz that we found on a cassette
in the upholstry of the passenger seat
and we like it that way
we've got intentions, insane interventions
we've got cinergy, energy, chemistry, and serendipity now
throwing twenty-dollar bills out the window
to prove we're invincible
careless, fearless, irresponsibly free
yeah we're reckless and wild
there's a turtle in the middle of the road
there's like ten million shooting stars
we're spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning
we're a dot on your screen
we're unfolded and green
on the highest horizon, laughing loudest of all
people are staring, it's the summer of love
it's the end of the century
look up the moon is a scoop of vanilla ice cream
are we here? are we real? is this only a dream?

in which we're writing a song?
a song about everything
or is this only a summer fling
we'll remember in a poloroid someday?

it doesn't have to be long
to be a song about everything
remind yourself with a piece of string
you're always writing a song about everything

about everything