Nanci Griffith - Michael's Song lyrics

There's a light out on the freeway
Says it's time to go
I'm wasting my time counting stains
On a barroom floor
Thinking 'bout my hometown and the
Friends I'll leave behind
Mostly 'bout the man who writes
His songs with smiling rhymes
And I'm holding on to a smokey view
Of his dreams in the midnight light

Michael counts his songs in the
Years of wasted miles
I used to think he was really
Part of that fantasy in rhyme
But looking back on all his
Tunes of butterflies and sunshine
There was only one about the
Man he kept inside
About the time he crossed the line and
Let a tear come to his eye

I used to hide out in his pretty smile
And hope it would shine me through the morrow
Until I learned the way it
Feels to be the man
Who sings the world a smile without
A soul to share his sorrow

The light here at the freeway, well
It's turning green to gold
The stains on that barroom floor ten
Miles back down the road
Thinking 'bout how that old bar
Brought Michael back to mind
And how I can sing his blues
And be smiling here inside
I guess a weary soul will
Always sing Michael's smiling rhymes

I used to hide out in his pretty smile
And hope it would shine me through the morrow
Until I learned the way it
Feels to be the man
Who sings the world a smile without
A soul to share his sorrow