Fool’s Gold On Main Street(Live at Room 4， Chapel Hill， NC， July 2000)

Fool's gold on Main St from stop signs to dangling telephones

Children delivering newspapers all the grotesque and the hum-drum

I used not to worry but now it's all I do

I used to be in a hurry but now I'm dragging both my boots

Wondering how to get from Main to Meadow

From fisherman to fish to butcher the struggle is never ending

You can put your life down on paper but it's not the same as swimming

I dropped a hint and you were kind enough to retrieve it

You asked me where the trouble was and you were sweet enough to believe it

But it was such a sad lie I had to whisper

What happened to Blake and Eric Douglas Phil and Amanda

What happened to Jennifer the Great who loved me before anyone

They're flying into the ground or walking high around my city

While my head is just some town you wouldn't want to visit

It's crowded and the people all look ghostly

Fool's gold on Main St shuffling through orphan trash

The birds search for the sun at their feet in every crumb of shattered glass

I slipped on holy blinders as if I could turn my body in

If I'm guilty when I despair will hope make me innocent again

Or will it only get me through this winter

There are neon invitations where shameless billboards babble

You belong to nothing at all now since your pockets have unraveled

Your soul is just a drop of the dream we collected with pans in the stream

The streets of heaven are lined with it and the streets of heaven are clean

But everything you'll ever touch is dirty