Two Friends Take A Bow For The Record

Simon Joyner

Perhaps we were cut out of the same cloth or cardboard
Or maybe you were carved out of soap and I out of driftwood
Maybe we've got nothing in common but a sorrow withstood
By distance and devotion

My eyes belong to shapes that travel at light speed going nowhere
Across the screen of my dreams straight out into the frozen thin air
But if you've seen one blow by you're surely lost a dozen somewhere
It's a crutch that ain't much for leaning

Through my window through the trees there is a train about to leave me yearning
With a whistle to stop my heart and coal for burning
The four loose chambers while the wheels continue turning
And slipping through my fingers

So let's drink a little wine while we can
Fill our glasses until they spill and say Amen
Come on brother go on and cup your hands
We'll say goodbye and let it end

I've been trying to recall the details of the fall from the apple
To the sons of those exiled traced through to the burial
Of one single brother who was slain by the other and the evil
That spilled into the mud where there once was a garden

I thought perhaps you caught your death you wandered and vanished
I thought maybe into the vast abyss without so much as a compass
But you returned just in time to do a little more damage
Like a drum roll at the gallows

Now the sky is full of flames that burn and then rain only ashes
The thunder sounds tame compared to the heart when it crashes
Against solemn sleep as a silhouette creeps down your lashes
And the hallways fill up with laughter

So let's drink a little wine while we can
Fill our glasses until they spill and say Amen
Come on brother go on and cup your hands
We'll say goodbye and let it end