BURDEN OF SANITY - WHEN THE RAINS

James Michael Taylor

THE BURDEN OF SANITY

As I turned on to Calhoun I could hear the music from the street
A dog pissed on a speaker as I found myself a seat
Now, Buster is a caveman all hunched over his bones
Hair matted like a buffalo, like he’d never owned a comb

The years can kill your spirit. The years you can’t explain
The years that simply melt away like mascara in the rain

Just a dusty pile of speakers, a mic stand brown with rust
His eyes lost somewhere in the hair. A voice has turned to dust.

He sang songs by James Taylor and Billy Joel. Each song a famous name
Carol King and Joni Mitchell but the songs all sound the same

It was like I had walked into some back street production of
Beauty and the Beast, and there was no Beauty. Just The Beast…

I passed his van as I walked out. The roof piled with rugs and a chair.
There’s a burden we call sanity that some of us don’t share

Where is that clean cut husband I knew so long ago
That self-rightious liberal with the child and wife in tow?

The years can kill your spirit. The years you can’t explain
The years that simply melt away like mascara in the rain

(C) 2018 Royal T Music ascap