I remember sitting on the roof top
Theorizing 'til my head was sore
Climbing over fallen tree limbs, checking
What the Mississippi swept ashore
A young whippersnapper on a street
Corner hollering, "We gotta end the war"
Now I be, this character is me
A bit of all of the things I've been before
Skinny shorty with a coffee can
Hunting slimy creatures in the mud and the dirt
For what it's worth, I'll let 'em go at the request of ma dukes
Almost caught a snake once, last second I got spooked
Slithering, shaky, I stay fidgetin'
Use to pier jump into polluted Lake Michigan
Now, I'm hanging off a bridge 40 feet higher
Above the murky water, shit I thought I'd be wiser, nah
Tiddlywinks and newspaper tug boats
At 27 I be singing all my love notes
I've been afraid of rejection since back in the day
Prolly why I never ask her to stay
I quit smoking and then I started smoking again
I gotta find a different way to learn to cope with the bends
Extend a hand to the foe, bumping folk tunes and wu tang
Lost my hops but still got a nasty hoop game
A minimalist preaching to you that less is more
A bit of all of the things I've been before
A screen porch dweller soaking up the thunderstorms
A bit of all of the things I've been before
A romantic with my bleeding heart ripped and torn
A bit of all of the things I've been before
A late nighter feeling hungover every morn
A bit of all of the things I've been before
A deity, and a downer and a friend of yours
A bit of all of the things I've been before
Now I be, the character is me
A bit of all of the things I've been before
I think that I've learned the simplest things last
Every situation ain't a riddle or ink splat
As a teacher I can spot the shittiest mishaps
And know just what to say to make a miserable kid laugh
A warrior, a worrier, performing like a
Mourning bird, chirping to the chords of a Wurlitzer
Shifting from power to paranoia like Greek Gods
Waxing on the dreams caught and glory that we've lost
But I've yet to live my better years
I still need to see the stars from the southern hemisphere
Author stories and compile a thick book
Spend the summer dawns pulling trout off a fish hook
Look, I get caught up in comparisons
Got accomplishment amnesia and forget 'bout where I've been
But the triumphs, melancholy and the barriers I've breached
Form a fine collage and that character is me
I am just a drop of rain
Falling to the quiet stream
The flowing rivulet that'll
Wash it all away, wash it all away
I am just a grain of sand
Seated by the ocean blue
On the golden beach that
Sprawls across the way, sprawls across the way
I am just a single brick
In a wall that towers high
The edifice that you can
Off it far away, off it far away
I am just a lonely star
Burning in a crowded sky
On the night that stunned the world
All across the way, all across the way