Johnson's Island

Canal flows past an island sometimes up and over

The sides towards a man who makes art from paper

Dressed in purple with a golden scarf and a booming laugh

Next door there's a beauty queen inking deer and rabbits

Always starting with the eyes out of love or out of habit

She sees their pain staring back at her staring back at her

A spirit weaver dwells there telling fortunes to the weary

And a potion seller heals herself with balms and I see clearly

The love of the island

That brings strangers together

There's a hatter in the rooftop with a thousand pretty feathers

He only works at night with the felt and with the leather

Building scaffolding for heads to shout about

A great painter of portraits can capture any likeness

With photographic references that can't convey the brightness

Of the people that she brings to life she brings them to life

Boys sail past the window blowing kisses to a lady

Who has flowers in her fingers and gold leaf daisies

Living life on the island

Brings these people together

I was welcomed for a time

Those people showed me how to find

My own fault lines

But that island was never mine

that's now things are sometimes

Canal flows past an island sometimes up and over

The sides