Michael's Song Lyrics - Nanci Griffith

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 smoky 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 

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 

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 

How I can sing his blues and be smiling here inside 

I guess a weary soul will always sing, Michael's smiling rhymes