Cheryl Wheeler

I was drivin' home by the river side
Richard Thompson on and the day so fine
Pennsylvania towns sort of slip right by
In a soft line south, under purple skies

I was drivin' home through the Sunday bells
Through the trailer towns, through the rolling hills
From behind some cloud the sun still shines
And the streams run down the mountain sides

Slow down, what's the hurry
There's no rush today
There won't be too many
Days like today

I was driving' home on the black top tar
Up and down this road, like a cartoon car
Mason Dixon line slips behind me now
Golden fields go by, golden sun goes down

Slow down, what's the hurry
There's no rush today
There won't be too many
Days like today

Drivin' home, drivin' home

The wind came round and blew this place apart
It's you and me now sitting in the dark
The lights are out and everybody's home
It's you and me and we are both alone

The lines are down, there's just no getting through
You stare at me and I stare back at you
And in the dark I know that I can't see
'Cause here you are and still don't see me

Act of nature, act of God
Raging through our sedentary lives
We are on the brink
We are foundering
Spinning in this dark and rising tide

The storm has blown this great big beauty down
The branches all confusion on the ground
I've watched it grow and thought I knew it well
And I never dreamed I'd see the day it fell

So bolt the door, seal the cracks
Close your eyes, don't look back
Hold your ears tight against the roar
Someone said I should hear
Warning sounds soft and clear
Whispered in the calm before the storm

Act of nature, act of God
Raging through our sedentary lives
We are on the brink
We are foundering
Spinning in this dark and rising tide

The wind came round and blew this place apart....

I wish I could fall in love
Though it only leads to trouble, oh I know it does.
Still I'd fool myself and gladly just to feel I was
In love, in love.

I wish I could feel my heartbeat rise
And gaze into some gentle warm excited eyes,
And give myself as truly as an arrow flies
In windless skies.

Oh, I remember you in the TV light
Holding you close to me where we lay,
And now I wish I knew one of those softer nights
Whispering quietly, feeling you turn to me.

It was only last night in the winter dark
I dreamed of how you loved in all your innocence,
And I've never known a softer warmer feeling since
Or a truer heart.

Maybe these dreams are leading me;
maybe love is not as gentle as my memory.
Maybe tired and wishful half-remembered fantasies
are the greatest part.

Oh, but I remember you in the TV light
Holding you close to me where we lay,
And now I wish I knew some of those softer nights
Whispering quietly, feeling you turn to me.

I wish I could feel my heartbeat rise
and gaze into some gentle warm excited eyes,
and give myself as truly as an arrow flies
in windless skies.

I wish I could fall in love
Though it only leads to trouble, oh I know it does.
Still I'd fool myself and gladly just to feel I was
In love

What can I say, what can I do
I can't feel more. Feel more for you
And everyday I'm walking some street
Just watchin' it fade beneath my feet.

Chorus:
Tell me baby does the future look black.
Can we still look forward if we can't go back.
Am I holdin' you up, holdin' you down
Making you feel there's no way out.

I see your face, I see my part
I walked away
And broke your heart
And you're marking your time
And hearing some call
And you can't find no peace at all.

Chorus:
Tell me baby does the future look black.
Can we still look forward if we can't go back.
Am I holdin' you up, holdin' you down
Making you feel there's no way out.

And I wish I knew what I don't know
Can't hold on and can't let go
Something 'bout these ties that bind
Your broken heart is breaking mine.

I don't care about wrong
I don't care about right
Lord I don't want another angry night
I wanna lay me down
When the moon comes up
I wanna feel this love wash over us.

Chorus:
Tell me baby does the future look black.
Can we still look forward if we can't go back.
Am I holdin' you up, holdin' you down
Making you feel there's no way out...

Easy to find and hard to hold
Love is like summer green, waiting to grow old
And it is not like the stories school girls told
It is quiet as a winter dawn

Maybe I've never loved at all
Maybe passions arise, and leave me where I fall
Till I hear some familiar memory call
And I know that love has changed or gone

Who knows the nature, and who holds the key?
As emotions unwind, is it heart, is it mind?
I'll never know if it's love or it's me
On and off like the wind, strong and fading again

And all around me I can see
Those who ran from the night for warmth and company
Until they woke to the strangers they could be
And the passion they no longer knew

Here's to the school girls lost in time
And the boys running wild to see what they can find
Trading love of the long and lasting kind
For a bottle of a stronger brew

I'm glad I weren't no pioneer
Ridin' in a wagon cross the great frontier
I'm playin' by candlelight power's out here
And I can't watch tv

I can't do nothin' - nothin' at all
Everything comes from a switch on the wall
Drives me nuts when it won't behave
No popcorn from the microwave

Oh yeah yeah, yeah
Sky's real nice
Moon's real big
Stars real bright
Cable calls and it don't seem right
That I can't watch tv.

And it breaks my heart all I'm missin'
Bowling shows, old guys fishin'
How the dogs on the track did
Near death stuff re-enacted
Where to call to talk to strangers
Interviews with hockey players
How to lose a pound a minute
Make big bucks, be rollin' in it
Shopping clubs, gladiators,
Cher's make-up, roller skaters
Rhinestone studs in your new skirt
Bald guy stuff, psychic network
Don't you feel bad for me
That I can't watch tv.

(Repeat Chorus)

Cable calls and it don't seem right
That I can't watch tv.

In the afternoon light riding around
Riding my bike all over town
They said on TV that out west right now
The rivers can poison us

And it was hard to believe
Watching it win
Kept coming down and kept coming in
And finally reached where our great cities stand
Now the rivers can poison us

And once more we find out in case we've forgot
Just who is strong here and just who is not
As if we could hand her some route that we'd plot
The rivers can poison us

It lifted the trash
It lifted the gold
And lifted the lives to weak to hold
All swept into some diluvian fold
The rivers can poison us

It's like all that we've done has seeped from the sea
It's been take what you want and leave what you leave
We sure have been pigs since adam and eve
Now the rivers can poison us

And I love the thought of us all being one
But kids in the third grade pack needles and guns
And now we might die if we lie in the sun
And the rivers can poison us

Salt of the earth ebb and the flow
All that we have and more than we know
Laden with garbage from decades ago
The rivers can poison us

Maybe one day the great salty blue
Will swallow us up with all that we knew
And things will start over like they always do
When the rivers can poison us

If I were maybe a wolf or a dog
I wouldn't have to speak
Wouldn't have to talk
Just eat my dinner and go for a walk
And howl at the moon.

And if I were laying there just like you
All curled up the way dogs do
I'd dream that dream that you're dreamin' too
And howl at the moon.

Howl at the moon
Howl at the moon.

And if I could carry your black and white
Sleep so sound, wake so nice
I'd keep real close to my own advice
And howl at the moon.

Oh, you know something I don't know
You go places I can't go
You lift your head when the breezes blow
To voices older than time.

I'll keep you close, oh, I like you near
I'll touch your head and pull your ear
And watch you resting while I sit here
And howl at the moon.

Howl at the moon
Howl at the moon
Howl at the moon.

I'll watch you resting while I sit here
And howl at the moon...

Trouble on the rise from the middle of a stormy sea
Muffled in the skies on the edges of the whole country
Blowing home heavy hearts again
In a moan, frozen on the wind
I never knew a sky so gray
On an icy day
As the wind blows down
On a sea coast town

Harboring the beast that the power of the wind controls
Howling in the streets with the voices of the ancient souls
Old and frail primeval mysteries
Come to wail of unknown histories
I never heard a stronger cry
From a mournful sky
Over frozen land
In the winter's hand

Out along the shore in a hurricane of ice and foam
Swaying in the roar I was standing on the dock alone
In the night
Where the forces came to play
And maybe I
Should have known to turn away
But I never felt so drawn and bound
To the great unknown
'Til it turned me around
And it sent me home

I guess I can't stop you
No, I guess you'll just leave
Its like I woke and found
You walking on sacred ground
Bringing a great dread down on me

And I know we've had hard times
But I thought we'd still try
Didn't we both intend
To see this through thick and thin
It wasn't just sink or swim this time

Well this ain't the love you swore to me
And this ain't the life it's supposed to be
And I don't know just how to hold on now
And it's so far to fall
From the warm light in your eyes
To nothin' at all

Guess I'll drop by and see my old friends
Maybe go off on my own
You speak from a heart so cold
To tell me your love's grown old
And just not enough to hold you down

Oh this ain't the love you swore to me
And this ain't the life it's supposed to be
And I don't know just how to hold on now
And it's so far to fall
From the warm light in your eyes
To nothin at all

While we're repealing those gun laws let's repeal those murder laws too
We don't want some government red tape telling us what to do
The jails are full, there is no doubt
We don't wanna let one of those drug fiends out
And if those illegal aliens are killing each other now and then
It's cheaper than educating them
And it makes good sense to me

I'm tired of all those PC liberals, tired of the fuss they've made
Every time some family man's just called a spade a spade
Clutter our TV's, clutter our courts
Every time some dame gets a poke in the shorts
I'll be damned if I'll do my job for a faggot or some foreign slob
They can find some democrat to rob
It makes good sense to me

Arts endowments waste of my hard earned loot
Adios NPR, howdy Jesse and Newt

Now if some pretty little lady gets herself knocked up good
She'll have to have that baby just because we think she should
In who's sick mind did it ever occur
That a choice like that should be up to her
They're a godless bunch, a cross we bear
But as soon as that little tike draws air
We can wash our hands of the whole affair
Makes good sense to me

Our contract here is well defined
We can leave this bullshit far behind
With a stingy hand and a narrow mind
Makes good sense
Makes good sense
Makes good sense to me

Early mornin' sunrise come and pull the song from me
So I can turn away and rest my tired eyes
I can't escape the haunting of a lonely melody
It runs around and `round without a compromise
So where you gonna go, what you gonna do
You know I can't say no, can't say good-bye to you
I can't stop the flow 'till you've decided to

The song runs like a piper like a drummer through my brain
Silence all around feels so apart from me
And I could sit and cry for all the love and all the pain
That brings itself to mind inside a harmony
The softest mornin' light can't shine as soft as you
The sweetest love in sight can't love me like you do
The swiftest bird in flight can't climb the path to you

Now it's fully dawn and nightly silence breaks away
Into the distant sounds of cars and factories
Traces linger on and slowly fade into the day
And leave me with these rounds all hummin' back to me
So now I bid you well and take myself to bed
The tune you had to tell was soft and kindly said
And I still feel swell from all you comforted

Time takes us from cradle to grave
From helpless to helpless again
And there ain’t no turning back
On this one way track
Cause one day we’re bound to give in

And it just keeps rollin’ by
Like the sun in the sky
Like the darkness
that follows the day
And it may be the Lord who giveth
But it’s time that taketh away

You watch us grow up
We watch you grow old
It’s the order we’ve known from the start
But it don’t help to know
When time’s runnin’ low
Cause I swear it still tears us apart

And how can I start
To take this in stride
Who let your strength start to fray
And how can I stop the tears in my eyes
You’re fading away, fading away

Everywhere I turn everyone is lost in this thing
'Cause something feels gone
Life is nothing like we dreamed it might be
And we don't move forward, can't move back
We hold our hands out hoping for that

(Chorus)
One love that's all of it
Deep nights and quiet days
Long lovers, old comforts
Feel like some ball and chain

I guess we're really gettin' old
Always worrying we're wasting our time
Wantin' somethin' new to hold
Some affair would be the perfect crime
Long roads crumble, forevers fall apart
One day we don't know why we're so far from

(Repeat Chorus)

And if I want you and you want me
We'll call it love though it might not be
Hearts on fire, souls in line
Oh, just to know that, just to feel that one more time

Seems impossible to know
What is real and what is just some restless thing
And our hearts learn slow all the miseries bad choices bring
So is it wise or lazy holding tight to what you've known
And is it brave or crazy searching for some

(Repeat Chorus)

I wish I could fall in love
Though it only leads to trouble, oh I know it does.
Still I'd fool myself and gladly just to feel I was
In love, in love.

I wish I could feel my heartbeat rise
And gaze into some gentle warm excited eyes,
And give myself as truly as an arrow flies
In windless skies.

Oh, I remember you in the TV light
Holding you close to me where we lay,
And now I wish I knew one of those softer nights
Whispering quietly, feeling you turn to me.

It was only last night in the winter dark
I dreamed of how you loved in all your innocence,
And I've never known a softer warmer feeling since
Or a truer heart.

Maybe these dreams are leading me;
maybe love is not as gentle as my memory.
Maybe tired and wishful half-remembered fantasies
are the greatest part.

Oh, but I remember you in the TV light
Holding you close to me where we lay,
And now I wish I knew some of those softer nights
Whispering quietly, feeling you turn to me.

I wish I could feel my heartbeat rise
and gaze into some gentle warm excited eyes,
and give myself as truly as an arrow flies
in windless skies.

I wish I could fall in love
Though it only leads to trouble, oh I know it does.
Still I'd fool myself and gladly just to feel I was
In love