michael's song

there's a light out on the freeway

says it's time to go

i'm wasting my time counting stains on a barroom floor

thinking 'bout my hometown and the friends i'll leave behind

mostly 'bout the man who writes his songs with smiling rhymes

and i'm holding on to a smokey view of his dreams in the midnight light

michael counts his songs in the years of wasted miles

i used to think he was really part of that fantasy in rhyme

but looking back on all his tunes of butterflies and sunshine

there was only one about the man he kept inside

about the time he crossed the line and let a tear come to his eye

i used to hide out in his pretty smile

and hope it would shine me through the morrow

until i learned the way it feels to be the man

who sings the world a smile without a soul to share his sorrow

the light here at the freeway

well

it's turning green to gold

the stains on that barroom floor ten miles back down the road

thinking 'bout how that old bar brought michael back to mind

and how i can sing his blues and be smiling here inside

i guess a weary soul will always sing michael's smiling rhymes

i used to hide out in his pretty smile

and hope it would shine me through the morrow

until i learned the way it feels to be the man

who sings the world a smile without a soul to share his sorrow