Tonight In Bilbao

(album: April - 2008)

I walked the old eroded streets
A million miles now have gone behind me
Walked in the room, soaked up its fumes
Surveyed the faces I am lying to

Gave what I had, I gave my heart
Though I was broken and falling apart
Gave for the memory of a friend
Not for myself and not for them

When I was done I met someone
She came in from the storm so bright and welcome
Her friends came and swept her away
Disappeared like coyotes off on dark high plains

I looked across the river so still
Trying to remember
Where it was last night I laid my head to sleep
Where the empty night hung heavily over

I left Bilbao, went to Madrid
To Barcelona, to Pamplona
Where every ghost unto me known
Haunted me

I flew in over the red clay roofs
And floated through the clouds as they swelled and shook
The bronze-tinted land and sea
And houses rolled in hills like yellowing teeth

When we touched down, opened my eyes to the sun
The dizzying air filled my lungs
And just as soon she'd woken me
My eyes blurry, my mind heavy

I left Milan, I went to Rome
And carried her aroma on to Verona
And all the kindness she had shown
Was only a dream

The flurries danced on cold gray tombs
The frozen lots where ignored souls loomed
As last rays of daylight died
I'm blowing into my hands and clearing my eyes

And as the train pulled away from Cologne
The noise dimmed, once so loudly it had grown
And as the engines burned through the night
I stared off at far away lights

I left Berlin and I came home
To sleepy potions of blue oceans
Where my love so selflessly
Awaited me

I long to feel her light so warm
My thoughts racing to the places
Where her room invitingly
Awaited me

As the ocean brings in its high tide
As the darkness sets upon the beach
As we drive we look out at black cows
Glowing store windows in old gold rush towns

Over the bridge, the city sparkles so bright
Our hungry stomachs smell bread rise
Dim light of television, bedding soft down
And hear the perfect night as foghorns sound