Blue

Put a shell up to your ear

If you’re just going to stand there

Stand there

Or go swimming

Go swimming

Or go to the ocean

Go to the ocean

Or ask me a question

Ask me a question

Or kiss me

Kiss me or go harder

Go harder or go home

See what the shell says

See what it tells you

You worried 1971 is going to be

Like last year

Like the year before?

They’re not making anymore of us

These days

We’re not a dying breed

But we’re not a bountiful breed either

Rent hasn’t been paid

On this house

In two months

Must be because

We opened the door one day

And moved out

Whoever lives here

Would charge us

God knows what

If they knew we were here

What are the odds?

A house on the beach

Furnished

Cans in the pantry

And towels in the closet

All empty

All for the taking

Something tells me

If we stay an extra day

Longer than we should

The front door will pop open

And a lovely family will come in

And ask us what the heck we’re doing

Living in their beautiful

Winter beach house

See, we see something

And think we know how it is

And what it should be used for

But somewhere in another part of the world

There’s somebody would see it

Better than we ever could

Better than we ever could

I know you’re thinking

That next year

Won’t be much to speak of

But we might get another year

After that

And we could try preparing

For it now

Or we could bar the door

And hope that family never shows up

And this isn’t a beautiful winter beach home at all

But a year-round empty house

Meant for stragglers like us

Who just needed a place to stay

After the city got to be too much

And they ran out of typewriter ribbon

Write your name in the sand

Or forget your name

Forget your name

Forget where you are

Forget where you are

Forget who I am

Forget who I am

And then what do I do?

Go back?
Go back without you?

Oceans are only blue

In some parts of the world, you know

The kind of blue you see
In a children’s book

Everywhere else

They’re more green

Or they’re dark

Or they’re white with crisp

Navy edges

Here they were blue for awhile

But that was when we first got here

And we thought we were lucky

Now we know we are

But now the blue’s gone

And the dream begins

The part of the dream

Where you think you’re dreaming

But you don’t want to find out

If you’re right

That’s the blue

You try to live in

You try to live in it

For as long

As you can