Pp M& (lifelines)

I'm the kid who ran away with the circus
Now i'm watering elephants
But i sometimes lie awake in the sawdust
Dreaming i'm in a suit of light

Late at night in the empty big top
I'm all alone on the high wire
Look he's working without a net this time
He's a real death defier

I'm the kid who always looked out the window
Failing tests in geography
But i've seen things far beyond just the schoolyard
Distant shores of exotic lands

There're the spires of the turkish empire
Six months since we made landfall
Riding low with the spice of india
Through gibraltar, we're rich men all

I'm the kid who thought we'd someday be lovers
Always held out that time would tell
Time was talking
I guess i just wasn't listening
No surprise, if you know me well

And as we're walking toward the train station
There's a whispering rainfall
Across the boulevard, you slip your hand in mine
In the distance the train calls

I'm the kid who has this habit of dreaming
Sometimes gets me in trouble too
But the truth is
I could no more stop dreaming
Than i could make them all come true
Than i could make them all come true

The crops are all in, the peaches are rotting
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps
They're flying us back to the mexican border
To pay all our money just to wade back again

Some of us are illegal and some are not wanted
Our work contract's out and we have to move on
600 miles to that mexican border
They chase us like outlaws, like thieves on the run

Chorus
Goodbye to my juan, good-bye rosalita
Adios mis amigos, jesus y maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportee

The sky plane caught fire over los gatos canyon
A fireball of lightning that shook all the hills
Who are these friends now all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says they are just deportees

Chorus

We died in your hills, we died in your deserts
We died in your valleys and we died on your plains
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes
Both sides of the river, we died just the same

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves and to rot on the topsoil
And be called by no name except
Deportees?

Chorus

When i was a young man courting the girls
I played me a waiting game.
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
I'd let the old earth take a couple of twirls
And i'd ply her with tears instead of pearls
And as time came around, she came my way
As time came around, she came

But it's a long, long while from may to december
And the days grow short when you reach september.
The autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
And i haven't got the time for the waiting game.

Oh, the days dwindle down to precious few;
September, november.
And these few precious days i'll spend with you.
These precious days i'll spend with you.

In the year of the yellow cab
In the shadow of the great world war
The third kid grandmom had
Came into this world
On a rolling farm in maryland
When wilson was the president
And summer blew her good-bye through the trees

A child of changing times
Growing up between the wars
The fords rolled off the line
And bars all closed their doors
And i imagine you back then
With snap brim hat and farmer's tan
Where horses drew their wagons through the fields

Chorus:
Now the fields are all four lanes
And the moon's not just a name
Are you more amazed at how things change
Or how they stay the same
And do you sit here on this porch and wonder
How the time flies by
Or does it seem to barely creep along
With 75 septembers come and gone

Were the fields all gold and fawn
Was the spring house dark and cool
Did the rooster crow at dawn
When they got you up for school
And would you tell me once again
The tales of grandad's hired men
And how they drove the old road to town

Chorus:

On the corner there's this nice man
His name is mark, he's always smiling
He's got this mom who comes on wednesdays
In the evening with soup so steaming
He shares his house with his friend martin
They're not brothers, they're not cousins
My little girl wonders all about these men
I take hold of her hand, and i begin

Chorus:
Home is where the heart is
No matter how the heart lives
Inside your heart where love is
That's where you've got to make yourself
At home

Across the yard live deb and tricia
With their tools and ladders
And their room addition
My kid yells over, "are ya having a baby?"
They wink and smile, they say, "someday maybe."
But through their doors go kids and mommies
Funny how you don't see the daddies go in
My little girl wonders
'bout this house with no men,
I take hold of her hand
And i begin

Chorus

'round the corner, here comes martin
He's alone now, he tries smiling
He roams around his well stocked kitchen
He knows that fate will soon be coming
My little girl wonders where he will live
I take hold of her hand and i begin

Chorus

Martin sits and waits with his windows open
His house is empty, his heart is broken
We bring him toys and watercolors
He loves to hear my little baby's stories
She's the gift i share
She's his companion
She's the string on the kite
She guides him into the wind
My little girl wonders who will care for him
We take hold of his hand and we begin

There's a little girl playing in the garden
She thinks that she's alone and no one sees
But the beauty of it all
As the daisy petals fall
Is the wish she's made that's whispered in the breeze
There's the wish in the breeze

Chorus:

Won't you take the chance
And let your tears start falling
And ignore the fearful warning of your mind
Let your heart for once do all the talking
And believe that you deserve for the sun to shine
Believe that you deserve for the sun to shine

There's an old woman sitting in the doorway
And she greets the people each one as they pass
Sometimes they hover 'round her for her wisdom
Sometimes so she'll remind them how to laugh
They know that she'll remind them how to laugh

Chorus

Now on a hill there stands a cross above a graveyard
And the simple word carved in it says "forgive"
No war or killing anger can match the force it carries
It can heal the generations so that other ones can live
It can heal us, so we can live

Chorus

Now there's a moment between forward and retreating
When you're just not sure which path you ought to choose
Then the sun shines brightly on the golden meadow
And suddenly, you're not at all confused
Suddenly, you're not confused

That's when you take the chance
And let your tears start falling
And ignore the fearful warnings of your mind
And you let your heart for once do all the talking
And believe that you deserve for the sun to shine
You always did deserve for the sun to shine
I love you, and i want the sun to shine.

In the beginning, as life became form,
The oceans heaved, the mountains were cleaved,
The firmament stormed.
At the center of being, immensely small
Was the master of now, don't ask me how
The love of it all

And the seasons were many.
Creation was new.
And there on a tree (deceptively free)
A forbidden fruit
Upon leaving the garden, after the fall,
One thing was clear; we chose not to hear
The love of it all

But for the love of it all
I would go anywhere.
To the ends of the earth,
What is it worth if love would be there?
Walking the thin line between fear and the call
One learns to bend and finally depend
On the love of it all

"irresistible targets"
I heard someone say.
They were speaking of angels
Who are so courageous day after day
Gunned down on a highway (as we often recall)
I hear a scream; i have a dream
The love of it all

Still the world is in labor,
She groans in travail.
She cries with the eagle, the dolphin,
She sighs in the song of the whale.
While the heart of her people
Prays at the wall.
A spirit inside is preparing a bride
For the love of it all

For the love of it all,
Like the stars and the sun,
We are hearts on the rise,
Separate eyes with the vision of one.
No valley too deep, no mountain too tall,
We can turn back the night with merely the light
From the love of it all.

And so we are marching to 'to give peace a chance'
Brother and sister as one in this mystery dance.
Long ago on a hilltop where now the curious crawl
A man on a cross paid the ultimate cost
For the love of it all

For the love of it all
We are gathered by grace
We have followed our hearts
To take up our parts
In this time and place.
Hands for the harvest,
Hear the centuries call:
It is still not too late to come celebrate
The love of it all

"eli, eli, lemana shabakthani"
The love of it all