A Suitable Exit

There is no currency in that which could have been

And it torments you

I never asked to be born

I was only wondering where the door went to

Now here I am at the kitchen table

It’s just me and the wacky call-in morning crew

And a plain-clothes fireman

Who claims to know what kind of night I had

By the taste of the morning dew

(by the taste of the morning dew)

The fireman, he keeps the table wet

He lets me guzzle it dry

We drank the warblers to work

Trading half-truths beneath a muslim sky

I wonder what form the fables take

When the neighbors wake and robins begin to bustle and cry

One day along the way

We lost one lone piece of the puzzle

But the prodigal piece of our puzzle is nigh

And if in fact back somewhere in the pack

I asked to be born

I am only wondering why

Death has loaned us to life

The morning crew’s gone static

The fireman is half-sick but stubborn as a headstone font

We shove the ghosts back in the attic

Sit back and watch the living grab at what the dead don’t want

We reenact an action flick

Having a laugh and sipping Sauvignon from a squirt gun

The fireman admits that he had never seen the sequel

I said I never even saw the first one

And that when in fact there’s currency

In that which could have been, it’s rarely much

So I sit back and watch the living

Split the check for what the dead had barely touched

We split the check for what the dead have barely touched

I sit alone now at the table

While the village burns with an innocence that’s child-like

| change the batteries in my radio

And settle all my grudges with the wildlife

This house will soon burn too

There’s nothing you nor I could do to protect it

So I call in for a whack at the morning crew

Whom too see death as a suitable exit

For death has loaned us to life

And to it we shall report twice

For death has loaned us to life

And to it we shall report twice

Death has loaned us to life

Death has loaned us to life

Death has loaned us to life

Death has loaned us to life

Death has loaned us to life

Death has loaned us to life

Death has loaned us to life

And to it we’ll return

In the morning light