Michael Johnson
All The Kids Are Out Tonight (Back Home)
I came to this world when a clumsy bird
Dropped me accidentally from the sack in his mouth
I went into a freefall and hit ground
East of San Francisco and a little to the south
When I landed in a bundle at my parents' door
I expected to have landed on European shores
But clearly the bird must have missed somehow
Hadn't he meant to drop me in Paris? London? Moscow?
I grew up feeling all the time
Like I was stranded in a land that wasn't really mine
Still I went to prom, made songs with my friends
Rolled 20-sided die and
Worshipped R.E.M
All thе kids are out tonight
Sitting on Camaros starting fights
All the kids are out tonight
Sitting on Camaros starting fights
Spеnding quarters, making out
Tripping through the strip malls. School is out!
Back home
Now here I am
In the Fatherland
I'm walking through the black woods nobody's hand in my hand
The skyline down in Mainhattan town
Shines beyond the cornfields as the sun is going down
I mount my bike
And begin to ride
Without a light the path is white with black on either side
My crooked cranks make a clanking sound
As they chink against the chain guard on their way up and around
I cross the highway with its stream of lights
Running underneath me like a marathon of fireflies
The dark trees part
Bringing shadows down
The sky looks like the asphalt on a parking lot in my town
All the kids are out tonight
Sitting on Camaros starting fights
All the kids are out tonight
Sitting on Camaros starting fights
Getting lost in each other's eyes
Riding flattened boxes down the hills at night
Back home
Someday I'll return on a silver bird
I'll make my way through baggage claim and out into a cab
For now the wrinkled blanket of the Taunus hills
Swells with rain
As my train rolls through fields of daffodils
Jet trails slice
Through the whitegray sky
The empty seat next to me is full of ghosts and memories
But all my thoughts
Are far away
Playing kickball in the cul-de-sacs of the old McUSA
All the kids are out tonight
Sitting on Camaros, starting fights
All the kids are out tonight
Sitting on Camaros, starting fights
Forging songs in garages from noise
Here's to the antics of the girls and boys!
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