Roaming Charges

(Lyric after Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan)

And so we're here once again
On that shoreline of reality known as who-knows-when
The mud on your shoes speaks of where you've been
And the fact that I notice tells the there-and-then

I rode my bike downtown and found a street I hadn't known
The addresses matched a letter from a friend who lived alone
It said you've never lived until you own your own
Now I know what people mean when they say My how you've grown

I followed the trajectory of a bluejay on the wing
I really liked his color but that jay just couldn't sing
It was suddenly tomorrow and I worried 'bout the thing
He took off across the bog and left me there sinking

A crowd was gathering and you know they had the right
They saved me plain and simple and marched off in the night
Left to contemplate I tempted fate and picked a fight
With a non-believing zealot in the Garden of Delights

Then a booby-trapped philosopher intoned my name and rank
My station hitherto unknown, I now had him to thank
I desired conversation but his breath and body stank
So I said I'd email him and he said "name's Frank....just...Frank"

So muddy-shoed and eden-bruised and enlightened came I home
Having ventured no further than the proverbial capitol dome
Where I came face to face with my missing chromosome
Doomed to run, doomed to ride, doomed, in a word, to roam.

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9/17/04

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