A Strange Boy

A strange boy is weavin' a course of grace and havoc

On a yellow skateboard through midday sidewalk traffic

Just when I think he's foolish and childish and I want him to be manly

I catch my fool and my child needin' love and understandin'

What a strange, strange boy?

He still lives with his family

Even the war and the Navy

Couldn't bring him to maturity

He keeps referrin' back to school days and clingin' to his child

Fidgetin' and bullied, his crazy wisdom holdin' on to something wild

He asked me to be patient, well I failed, grow up, I cried

And as the smoke was clearin', he said, "give me one good reason why"

What a strange, strange boy

He sees the cars as sets of waves

Sequences of mass and space

He sees the damage in my face

We got high on travel and we got drunk on alcohol

And on love, the strongest poison and medicine of all

See how that feeling comes and goes, like the pull of moon on tides

Now I am surf risin', now parched ribs of sand at his side

What a strange, strange boy

I gave him clothes and jewelry

I gave him my warm body

I gave him power over me

A thousand glass eyes were starin' in a cellar full of antique dolls

I found an old piano and sweet chords rose up in waxed New England halls

While the boarders were snorin' under crisp white sheets of curfew

We were newly lovers then, we were fire in the stiff blue-haired house rules