Gaining Ground

When I was eighteen a friend asked me to take his girlfriend with me back to our hometown. He said he would follow in a week or two…He never showed up. She stayed with me for a few months. It didn’t occur to me at the time but I think she was only sixteen and what was really happening was that she was running away from home. It was my first experience living with someone other than my immediate family. I did what I thought I was supposed to do but I also did what I could under the circumstance. Eventually her father showed up at the bottom of our stairs and without speaking a word took her home. I don’t even remember her name now. I think of myself as a good partner but that isn’t always the consensus of those who I partner with. I have learned a lot from those beginnings.

Well I heard my ex-wife talking to our neighbor

About her new.. boy …friend

She said I’m so used to taking care of others

Well he is taken care of me instead

You know I felt a little funny

Cause i knew she was talking about me

Thats not the way I remember it

No i do not remember it to be that way

When I was 18

I took in a runaway

She crawled into my bed

On the 7th day

I played her music and I cooked her food

I did everything that I thought I could

Down stairs to mikes ohhh we would go

Find that water bed and sink right in

Yeah yea, we would begin again

For fear of choking on you

For fear of something new

Well it tears me apart and it pushes me away

I hope

I hope

I hope

I hope

I hope that i will bend

You know I’ve been mistaken

I have been down on my knees

But i never have forsaken

never have forsaken

All those things that were given to me

I look at my feet in the morning

And I wonder where they are bound

I should be picking flowers

I should be gaining ground