Days of the Years

Leaving my coat at the Greyhound station Raising my arms in supplication Making some money, spending some money Drinking Pepsi, just walking around Making people hate me, making people laugh Fear of drowning in a shallow bath Feeling under-dressed in the cold midwest Kissing my grandmother goodbye Watching the crocuses bloom and fade Easter bunny from an old parade Exchanging pleasantries under pleasant trees Over griefs and apéritifs These are the days of the years of my life American summer and it's all a breeze Buck-tooth girls in skin-tight jeans I'm crooning in the open West Meeting my baby at a greasy spoon Sitting alone in the Rembrandt room Walking in the shade where lilies weep Under clouds of marzipan Walking in the dark of monument valley Stray cats in a narrow alley The song was weird but still they cheered it's scrambled eggs and it's solitaire weill these are the days of the years of my life Mopping up gore from the butcher's floor Feeling clean as a new drug store Singing loud idiotic songs In the blue blue mountains walking along Night-long drives on the wild edges Apparitions in the neighbor's hedges Sinus drips and Battleship Putting ashes in a rushing stream Watching a city turn into sea Standing in water up to the knee Missing my stop on a city bus In the land of propaganda These are the days of the years of my life Watching birds on a drowsy sea Sittin' in the dark of a family tree Funeral flowers and paperwork Drowning my dreams in mountain streams Standing tall in a cap and gown And a house that's since torn down It's summer in the Catskills now Leisure classes in the mountain passes The jaws of life and the jaws of death Hearing secrets in a dying breath In a black four-door sedan Down the road to the end of the world These are the days of the years of my life These are the days of the years of my life