The Late Show

by Jackson Browne

Everyone I've ever known has wished me well
Anyway that's how it seems, it's hard to tell
Maybe people only ask you how you're doing
'Cause that's easier than letting on how little they could care
But when you know that you've got a real friend somewhere
Suddenly all the others are so much easier to bear

Now to see things clear it's hard enough, I know
While you're waiting for reality to show
Without dreaming of the perfect love
And holding it so far above
That if you stumbled onto someone real, you'd never know

You could be with somebody who is lonely too
[Sometimes it doesn't show]
He might be trying to get across to you
[Words can be so slow]
When your own emptiness is all that's getting through
There comes a point when you're not sure why you're still talking
I passed that point long ago

I'm so tired of all this circling
And all these glimpses of the end
'You know it's useless to pretend'
That's all the voices say
'You'll go right on circling
'Until you've found some kind of friend'

I saw you through the laughter and the noise
You were talking with the soldiers and the boys
While they scuffled through your weary smiles
I thought of all the empty miles
And the years that I've spent looking for your eyes

And now I'm sitting here wondering what to say
[That you might recognize]
Afraid that all these words might scare you away
[Break through the disguise]
No one ever talks about their feelings anyway
Without dressing them in dreams and laughter
I guess it's just too painful otherwise

It's like you're standing in the window of a house nobody lives in
And I'm sitting in a car across the way
Let's just say it's an early model Chevrolet
Let's just say it's a warm and windy day
You go and pack your sorrow, the trash man comes tomorrow
Leave it at the curb and we'll just roll away