A Song To Pass the Time

There's a middle-aged woman She's dragging her feet She carries baskets of clothes to a laundromat While the Mexican children Kick rocks into the street And they laugh in a language I don't understand But I love them Why do I love them? So the neighborhood's dimming I smoke on the porch, Watch the people as they pass enclosed inside their cars On their faces just anger or disappointment I start wishing there was something I could offer them Consolation, what could I offer them? And they are sad in their suburbs Robots water the lawn And everything they touch gets dusted spotless And so they start to believe They've not touched anything at all And the cars in the driveway only multiply Well, they are lost in their houses I've heard them sing in the showers Making speeches to their sister on the telephone Saying, "You come home, woman, you come here, Don't stay so far away from me." This weather has me wanting love more tangible Something I can hold 'Cause it's getting cold Well I say, hold up our fists to the flame in the sky To block out the light that's reaching for our eyes 'Cause it, 'cause it would blind us. Yeah, it will blind us Well, I've locked my actions In the grooves of routine So I may never be free of this apathy But I wait for a letter that's coming to me She sends me pictures of the ocean in an envelope So there still is hope Yes, I can be healed There is someone looking for what I've concealed In my secret drawer In my pockets deep You will find the reasons that I can't sleep And you will still want me But will you still want me? Will you still want me? Well I said, "Come for the week, You can sleep in my bed And pass through my life Like a dream through my head It will, it will be easy I'll make it easy." But, all I have for the moment is a song to pass the time And a melody to keep me from worrying Some simple progression to keep my fingers busy, And words that are sure to come back to me And they'll be laughing And they'll be laughing My mediocrity, my mediocrity Yeah, they'll be laughing Yeah, they'll be laughing They will be laughing