Silver Harps and Violins

They called you a dreamer, we were seventeen
The years went by so fast, now they call you other things
All of the answers that you're dreaming of
They say that it's natural, but a grown man learns how to give them up

You had an apartment and a woman once
You paid the electric and the gas and water every month
She said that she loved you and she wore your clothes
Now she's in Dallas with a stand-up guy and a four year old

There's a world out there, I know there is
Where they’ll play my songs on their silver harps and their violins
If you remember one thing, remember this
When the lights came up there was nothing left I could give

All of your cousins and your relatives
And competent husbands, faithful model citizens
You saw them at Christmas when they laughed and sang
You're so very different, why the hell can't you just feel the same?

There's a world out there, I know there is
Where they’ll play my songs on their silver harps and their violins
If you remember one thing, remember this
When the lights came up there was nothing left I could give

Sometimes a vision lights up your mind
It's all you were given, like fragile fruit on a fragile vine