Song Description

3-part meditation on America, seen through 1) immigrant, 2) emigrant, 3) grieving friend

Lyrics

1. Easy Thing

Angel from an Asian war
Running like a deer to the promised refuge
Yeah, you just appeared,
Walking city streets like a spirit

People you encounter here
Never had to fear for a single minute
Life, it just goes on
The things you have seen, they can't hear it

And who said that getting out was easy?
All on your own somehow
But, freedom's not an easy thing to come by now.

Daughter of a foreign shore
Learn the words and ways of a brave new homeland
Do what you can do
Voices of your family haunt you

Lovers try to understand
Something in your eyes that they cannot fathom
Yeah, I ought to know
We were there, not so long ago

And who said that love was ever easy?
And how much to allow?
No, trust is not an easy thing to come by now

Yeah. I just want to stop, stop, stop you from thinking
That it's all too hard, I was wanting just to
Hold you close, and to tell you that it soon would be ok.

You don't just get to go, go, go up the mountain
Nothing's guaranteed. But I wish you would let me
Take your hand, though I know that you will push me far away.

All that you let us see
Is a beauty silent with mystery
Just the tragic face of the trying to be free

Now my memory will hold an image of you walking the crowded sidewalk
Towards the light of day
But you're always walking away.

Angel from an Asian war
Running like a deer, like an ocean tailwind
Skim across the ground
Fly the city streets like a spirit

And who said America was easy?
You still came anyhow
But peace is not an easy thing to come by now

I just want to stop, stop, stop you from thinking that it's all too hard
I was wanting just to
Hold you close, and to tell you that it soon would be ok.

Maybe it's a step by step up the mountain
Nothing guaranteed
Come on, I just want to take your hand
No I don't know if I can help you find the way.




2. On My Way
You say you will forgive 'cross the years and miles
In a funny way, I can't remember why I'm gone
Trains and rusty cars, mark my way back home
As I pass it by, feels like a country on the run.

Daughters in the mall, trying to bare it all.
As the mothers say, "If I had only known the score."
In another town. Saw the doctor's frown
And a couple learns - not having children anymore, now all their days stretch out before.

Are these sacred scenes only I can see? Am I approaching the great unknown?
This future home of the brave and free, but now we stand alone.

Soldier in the park, sitting very still
In his autumn eyes, the children are all king of the hill
On the Greyhound bus, father hugs his girl,
Tells her, "You and I - we'll find our place out in this world."

Waitress on the plains poured my cup of joe with a weary smile, and a tip jar full of woe
"Bo ain't coming back, Mama ain't been well
"But I swear it now, this too will pass and time will tell
"Honey, this ain't no prison cell."

Are these sacred scenes only I can see as I am working my way to you?
This future home of the brave and free
We don't surrender here, but we don't ask why
Say we don't give up, but don't want to try.

I don't know what it means (Out upon the open road)
What is moving my soul. (All these faces passing me by)
Take these separate pieces (Every face a different tale)
Maybe you and I can be whole. (Seen through these kaleidoscopic eyes)
Maybe you and I can be whole. (Watching through kaleidoscopic eyes)
Oh say can you see?

Are these sacred scenes only I can see as I am working my way upstream
This future home of the brave and free
We don't surrender here, adjust the smoke and mirrors
I am homeward bound, but I won't forget these sacred scenes




3. Don't You Say Goodbye (for Chris Kendall)

You're not here to see as you are traveling further away
The last of winter is melting on the lake
Some things that I wish I'd found the time to say
Blinked for only a moment, now I'll have to live with that mistake

Don't you say goodbye
'Cause you know there will be another morning, another sun.
Just you say goodnight to me, goodnight.
(And it hurts, just to say goodbye, just to say I need you right here when day is done.)
We will sleep at last when day is done.

I know I am fooled by movies, novels and media spill.
The lies are seductive, so what on earth is true?
What do I desire, what have I been sold?
Disturbed and uncertain, but you know I believed in you.

Don't you say goodbye
'Cause you know there will be another morning, another sun.
Just you say goodnight to me, goodnight.
(And it hurts, just to say goodbye, just to say I need you when day is done.)
What will be will be when day is done.