Over there

I know I shouldn't be here
I just wanted to tell you
I know I shouldn't be here
but a thought popped into my head
and I wanted to share it with you
I was sitting there, over there
and this thought popped into my head
'I want to be your punk-rock star'

When you kissed me earlier, over there
my eyes lit up
like a luv-o-meter in a bar in a hole in a wall
DING-DING-DING-DING!
And I wanted to lean back
and just say
"Thank you!
God, thank you!"
but we were over there
we were not over here
which is where we are now
and I know I shouldn't be here
but I just had something I needed to tell you
nothing fancy
nothing long
nothing I probably couldnt've have said
over there
just
'I want to strum my guitar forcefully
and spit out my lyrics
on the punk kids
in front of the stage
and I want you to be lounging in the back
drinking a beer
and smiling
because you know
the song's about you.

and you know
that no one else knows
that the song is about you'

Earlier, when we were over there,
exchanging each other
over the sacred and profane tradition
of oral history,
every holy sermon
from your bible
ended with
"And then he got obsessed with me
and I had to move again"
and I shouted to myself
'Don't start forest fires!
Stop drop and roll!
Punk rock will never die!'
But we were over there, you see,
where this could not be said
I know I'm not supposed to be over here
I'm sorry if I disrupted your normal procedure
but I just had a thought, suddenly,
over there,
and I was just so excited
I needed to quickly share it with you
over here
even though I'm not supposed to be over here
I just wanted to tell you
that I want to slam dance
in the middle of concert halls
surrounded by 70-year-old women in taffida dresses
I want to flash you the devil sign
while you play Chopin
and when the concerto is over
I want to scream
"FREEBIRD!"

This place, over here, is a fortress
I can tell that
I can tell that already
which means that way far away
it's a big fuckin' fortress, baby
and I'm already seeing the outlines
Over there is a free-range chicken ranch
No borders
no fences
just mountain and sky, as far as the eye can see
which is why I should have stayed over there
which is why I should not be over here
because the guard dogs will kill me over here
the snipers on the roof will gun me down in cold blood
I know I shouldn't be over here
but, see, I was over there
and I started getting lonely
and I wanted to come over here
It shouldn't matter, really,
I know it's not supposed to matter
but it does, you know,
it matters.
It matters, it matters,
it really matters.

She just stared at me for a moment
then put her arms around me
and pulled me into her apartment
and said softly into my ear
"It doesn't matter anymore"

Copyright 1998, Jason Pettus. All rights reserved.