The Way Things Go
When I was young, lost in the dark,
And stumbling round to learn to see,
A Boston graybeard in the park
Shared his take on sight with me.
“It’s funny, yeah, the way things go.
Most days you got it all tucked in
Like Beacon Hill beneath the snow;
You got a job, a girl or wife
And maybe even kids and dog.
When I was young, lost in the dark,
And stumbling round to learn to see,
A Boston graybeard in the park
Shared his take on sight with me.
“It’s funny, yeah, the way things go.
Most days you got it all tucked in
Like Beacon Hill beneath the snow;
You got a job, a girl or wife
And maybe even kids and dog.
By all that’s right, you’ve got a life.
Of course, there are the little glitches:
The kid with flu, the flattened tire,
The rainy day instead of shine,
But nothing bad, just small arms fire.
And then there are the triumphs too,
The boss’s praise, the raise, the fun
Of backyard friends and barbecue,
Your sweet love’s love when day is done.
So years may pass before it comes:
The cop who taps your midnight door
With words that kill a part of you,
The friend who spits and turns his back,
The doc who says, “I’ve got bad news.”
We never see the shadows fall
Until they fall like lead on us;
And then we see and oh the pain
Of blinding sight in all that dark:
A lover’s tears, a word unsaid
Can stab and stab and stab the heart.
It’s then we see, it’s then we know
All the things we did not know,
All the things we could not see
In what seemed to us reality.
It’s funny, isn’t it, the way things go.”
Of course, there are the little glitches:
The kid with flu, the flattened tire,
The rainy day instead of shine,
But nothing bad, just small arms fire.
And then there are the triumphs too,
The boss’s praise, the raise, the fun
Of backyard friends and barbecue,
Your sweet love’s love when day is done.
So years may pass before it comes:
The cop who taps your midnight door
With words that kill a part of you,
The friend who spits and turns his back,
The doc who says, “I’ve got bad news.”
We never see the shadows fall
Until they fall like lead on us;
And then we see and oh the pain
Of blinding sight in all that dark:
A lover’s tears, a word unsaid
Can stab and stab and stab the heart.
It’s then we see, it’s then we know
All the things we did not know,
All the things we could not see
In what seemed to us reality.
It’s funny, isn’t it, the way things go.”