I had a dream the other night That I had found a window And that window revealed to me the entire world I could see everything there is to see I could see the sun set in one land As it rose in another Nothing could hide from the windows gaze
I could see kids in public parks Late at night Staring at the dark, foreboding trees Hallucinating the majesty Of the way the branches moved in the wind And upon reflection Were called into the forest By the sinister shadows inside themselves
On the West Coast I saw a girl Separated from her Midwestern friends And her Midwestern love (Whom I have not met) I see as her mind is split Cross country style And her thoughts fall Like the raindrops on her window
I see a single match being lit In the basement of an East Coast hospital A young boy has traveled many miles (Hitchhiked across the country In a time where the Cassadys and Kerouacs The great heroes of the road Have all died out And the road is home to the carcasses of a million dear A thousand raccoons and a hundred skunks) The boy lights a second match And with the match lights a candle Then he pulls out an old dusty guitar And begins to play
The boy, Born too late, Journeyed to this hospital The hospital here his hero stayed While his hero’s mind decayed But now there is no one around The hospital is long empty So he plays a tune to himself The guitars’ celestial strings sing Echo through the Empty But with the window I see the boy is not alone The spirit of the boy’s hero Smiles down upon the boy from Heaven And with God & Saints Bless the boy The song The guitar
Miles away Out west on a lonesome prairie In the cover of night I see a man sit at the bar of a diner The warm glow does not penetrate far into the solid darkness The man is alone A fry cook stands in the kitchen But is not in the man’s view The hostess is out back Smoking in silence The man is left with his thoughts Along with his rancher’s jacket And ***** ball cap This man wears an air of sadness I can’t hear what he is thinking But in his silence I can feel the weight of that sadness I can almost know all his troubles The man finishes his coffee Puts money on the counter And leaves without saying a word
As the dream ends And I can feel myself begin to wake I can see all those faces staring back at me Each look through their own windows I see the man stare through his car window And the window of hope I see the West Coast girl Stare out the window of a plane And the window of longing I see the boy stare through the window of time And finally I see the children in the parks Staring through the window of Nature And the window of the soul