Ghosts of Perfect Tense

[catelin]

Ever have those inexplicable times when you find yourself wondering about woulda-shoulda-coulda? Where nothing's really wrong, but nothing's really right? When you wonder how long you're gonna be stuck between lonely and fulfilled? It's that pesky fuckin' twilight that I hate. I remember a Frank Zappa interview where he talked about how love songs perpetrated this awful hoax on everyone, making us long for things that didn't exist. I knew before I even pulled out the cd that I should just put it right back on the shelf and go to sleep.

North Dakota
(Lyle Lovett and Willis Alan Ramsey)

The boys from North Dakota
They drink whisky for their fun
And the cowboys down in Texas
They polish up their guns
And they look across the border
To learn the ways of love

If you love me, say I love you
If you love me, say I do
If you love me, say I love you
If you love me, say I do
And you can say I love you
And you can say I do

So I drank myself some whisky
And I dreamed I was a cowboy
And I rode across the border

If you love me, say I love you
If you love me, take my hand
If you love me, say I love you
If you love me, take my hand
And you can say I love you
And you can have my hand

I remember in the mornings
Waking up
With your arms around my head
You told me you can sleep forever
And I'll still hold you then

Now the weather's getting colder
It's even cold down here
And the words that you have told me
Hang frozen in the air
And sometimes I look right through them
As if they were not there

And the boys from North Dakota
They drink whisky for their fun
And the cowboys down in Texas
They polish up their guns
And they look across the border
To learn the ways of love

Sorry, Lyle...Zappa would wanna kick you in the ass for that one. I know I do. I think I'll take two long looks at my sleeping boys and call myself optimistic in the morning.