Stones In The Road

You can have it, i don't want it,
And when you've got it i'll be gone
It won't matter what you're saying when the damage has all been done
Can't seem to keep the faith
As if that's all i need to do
I'd rather walk away
Than take what belongs to you
You can have it, i don't want it,
And when you've got it i'll be gone
It won't matter what you're saying when the damage has all been done
Some words will cut you down
Like you were only in the way
Why should i stand this ground?
It won't hurt as much to say
You can have it, i don't want it,
And when you've got it i'll be gone
It won't matter what you're saying when the damage has all been done
Sometimes we're blinded by
The very thing we need to see
I finally realized
You need it more than you need me
You can have it, i don't want it, and when you've got it i'll be gone
It won't matter what you're saying when the damage has all been done
The damage has all been done

(mary-chapin carpenter)

Don't mean to get a little forward with you, don't mean to get ahead of where we are
Don't mean to act a little nervous around you, i'm just a little nervous about my heart 'cause
It's been awhile since i felt this feeling that everything that you do gives me
It's been so long since somebody whispered
Shut up and kiss me

Didn't expect to be in this position, didn't expect to have to rise above
My reputation for cynicism, i've been a jaded lady when it comes to love but
Oh baby just to feel this feeling that everything that you do gives me
It's been too long since somebody whispered
Shut up and kiss me

There's something about the silent type attracting me to you
All business baby none of the hype
That no talker can live up to

Come closer baby i can't hear you, just another whisper if you please
Don't worry 'bout the details darlin', you've got the kind of mind i love to read
Talk is cheap and baby time's expensive, so why waste another minute more
Life's too short to be so apprehensive, love's as much the symptom darlin' as the cure
Oh baby when i feel this feeling, it's like genuine voodoo hits me
It's been too long since somebody whispered...
Oh baby i can feel this feeling that everything that you do gives me
It's been too long since somebody whispered
Shut up and kiss me
Shut up and kiss me

I can tell by the way you're walking, you don't want company
I'll let you alone and i'll let you walk on and
In your own good time you'll be
Back where the sun can find you, under the wise wishing tree
And with all of them made we'll lie under the shade and call it a jubilee

And i can tell by the way you're talking, that the past isn't letting you go
There's only so long you can take it all on,
And then the wrongs gotta be on its own
And when you're ready to leave it behind you,
You'll look back and all that you'll see
Is the wreckage and rust that you left in the dust on your way to the jubilee

And i can tell by the way you're listening,
That you're still expecting to hear
Your name being called like a summons to all who have failed to account
For their doubts and their fears,
They can't add up to to much without you
And so if it were up to me i'd take hold of your hand
Saying come hear the band play your song at the jubilee

And i can tell by the way you're searching,
For something you can't even name
That you haven't been able to come to the table,
Simply glad that you came
When you feel like this try to imagine that we're all like frail boats on the sea
Just scanning the night for that great guiding light announcing the jubilee

And i can tell by the way you're standing with your eyes filling with tears
That it's habit alone that keeps you turning for home, even though your home is right here
Where the people who love you are gathered, under the wise wishing tree
May we all be considered then straight on delivered down to the jubilee

Because to people who love you are waiting,
And they'll wait just as long as need be
When we look back and say those were halcyon days
We're talking about jubilee

I grew up in a house like this
You knew the groan of every stair
All the walls seemed to listen in
All the years seemed to take up air
And when you dreamed it was of the wind blowing cold and hard
And in those dreams you thought you lived in a house of cards

And i grew up in a town like this
You knew the names of every street
On the surface it looked so safe
But it was perilous underneath
That's the place where you shoved your doubts and hid your ugly scars / god forbid if word got out about your house of cards

And now i feel the wind about to blow
Baby i'm so scared
We're repeating the past instead of letting it go
And i don't want to go back there

Now we're standing here face to face
Afraid to move or else
I want to prop up this fragile place
But i can't do it all by myself
Cause when we dream it's of the wind blowing cold and hard
And when we wake up we still live in a house of cards
When we dream it's of the wind blowing cold and hard
And when we wake up we still live in a house of cards

I was standing on this sidewalk in 1945 in jacksonville, illinois
When asked what my name was there came no reply
They said i was a deaf and sightless half-wit boy
But lewis was my name though i could not say it
I was born and raised in new orleans
My spirit was wild so i let the river take it
On a barge and a prayer upstream

They searched for a mother and they searched for a father
And they searched 'til they searched no more
The doctors put to rest their scientific test
And they named me john doe no. 24
And they all shook their heads in pity
For a world so silent and dark
Well there's no doubt that life's a mystery
But so too is the human heart

And it was my heart's own perfume when the crape jasmine bloomed on st. charles avenue
Though i couldn't hear the bells of the streetcars coming
By toeing the track i knew
And if i were an old man returning
With my satchel and pork pie hat
I'd hit every jazz joint on bourbon
And i'd hit every one on basin after that

The years kept passing as they passed me around
From one state ward to another
Like i was an orphaned shoe from the lost and found
Always missing the other
They gave me a harp last christmas
And all the nurses took a dance
Lately i've been growing listless
Been dreaming again of the past

I'm wandering down to the banks of the great big muddy
Where the shotgun houses stand
I am seven years old and i feel my daddy
Reach out for my hand
While i drew breath no one missed me
So they won't on the day that i cease
Put a sprig of crape jasmine with me
To remind me of new orleans

I was standing on this sidewalk in 1945 in jacksonville, illinois....

Everywhere i see the signs pointing one direction
No more twists or crooked turns leaving room for doubt
Where i used to take the time for quiet and reflection
Now i only hear the noise of what i am without
I see the walking hand in hand and my eyes just want to linger
On those golden wedding bands wrapped around their fingers
By the time i turn away i feel it once again
I'm back in this familiar place, outside looking in

Baby all the tears between us couldn't fill the spaces
And all the words we grasped at, they just fell away
I kept waiting on forgiveness to fix the broken places
But nothing even like it ever came my way
And tonight i drove around and the street came up before me
I took a turn and then i found this old house coming toward me
I heard the sound a heart must make when a memory's caving in
Oh baby what a hungry place, outside looking in

It's the hardest kind of need that never knows a reason
Are we such a lonely breed or just born in a lonely season
Baby it's all in the eyes; it's where the reckoning begins
It's where we linger like a sigh; it's where we long to be pulled in
It's where we learn to say goodbye without saying anything
Just standing on the borderlines, outside looking in

(mary chapin carpenter)

When we were young, we pledged allegiance every morning of our lives
The classroom rang with children's voices under teacher's watchful eye
We learned about the world around us at our desks and at dinnertime
Reminded of the starving children, we cleaned our plates with guilty minds
And the stones in the road shone like diamonds in the dust
And then a voice called to us to make our way back home
When i was ten, my father held me on his shoulders above the crowd
To see a train draped in mourning pass slowly through our town
His widow kneeled with all their children at the sacred burial ground
And the tv glowed that long hot summer with all the cities burning down
And the stones in the road flew out beneath our bicycle tires
Worlds removed from all those fires as we raced each other home
And now we drink our coffee on the run, we climb that ladder rung by rung
We are the daughters and the sons, and here's the line that's missing
The starving children have been replaced by souls out on the street
We give a dollar when we pass, and hope our eyes don't meet
We pencil in, we cancel out, we crave the corner suite
We kiss your ass, we make you hold, we doctor the receipt
And the stones in the road fly out from beneath our wheels
Another day, another deal, before we get back home
And the stones in the road leave a mark from whence they came
A thousand points of light or shame, baby, i don't know