For Real Lyrics - David Wilcox

from East Asheville Hardware 

.............................................. 

- (by Bob Franke) 

Death took the husband of a neighbor of mine 

On a highway with a drunk at the wheel 

She told me keep your clean hands off the laundry he left 

And don't tell me you know how I feel 

She had a tape that he'd sent her from a Holiday Inn 

That she never played much in the day 

But when I heard him say I love you through the window at night 

I just stayed the hell away 

Chorus: 

There's a hole in the middle in the middle of the prettiest life 

So the lawyers and the prophets say 

Not your father nor your mother nor your lover's ever gonna make it go away 

Now there's too much darkness in an endless night 

To be afraid of the way we feel 

Let's be kind to each other 

Not forever but for real 

My father never put his parachute on 

In the pacific back in World War II 

He said he'd rather go down in familiar flame 

Than get lost in that endless blue 

Well some of that blue got into my eyes 

And we never stopped fighting that war 

Until I first understood about endlessness 

And I loved him like never before 

There's a hole in the middle in the middle of the prettiest life 

So the lawyers and the prophets say 

Not your father nor your mother nor your lover's ever gonna make it go away 

Now there's too much darkness in an endless night 

To be ashamed of the way we feel 

Let's be kind to each other 

Not forever but for real 

Lucky my daughter got her mother's nose 

And just a little of her father's eyes 

And we've got just enough love 

That when the longing takes me 

It takes me by surprise 

And I remember that longing from my highway days 

When I never could give it a name 

And it's lucky that I discovered in the nick of time 

That the woman and the child aren't to blame 

For the hole in the middle of a pretty good life 

I only face it 'cause it's here to stay 

Not my father nor my mother nor my daughter nor my lover 

Nor the highway made it go away 

But now there's too much darkness in an endless night 

to be afraid of the way I feel 

I'll be kind to my loved ones 

Not forever but for real 

Some say god is a lover, some say it's an endless void 

And some say both, and some say she's angry 

And some say just annoyed 

But if god felt a hammer in the palm of his hand 

Then god knows the way we feel 

And then love lasts forever 

Forever and for real 

.............................................. 

Bob Franke, all rights reserved