Everyday Opus

[Verse 1]
The streets in this part of town are all made out of dirt
And there aren’t any streetlights for when I get up to go to work
The road grader comes once in awhile to fill in all the holes
And leave a ridge of gravel to trip me as I go

There aren’t any sidewalks here, just ditches into yards
And folks get kind of upset when you’re walking through their lawn
So I keep it on the roadway and try to move along
If they see me when they’re driving they’ll always blow their horn

All up and down this street these houses all look the same
In the greying of the twilight I can’t recall a single name
Of any of my neighbors or the faces of their kids
Only the kinds of cars they drive and if their dogs are tied

[Chorus]
Walking in these shoes isn’t as easy as you’d like
Dodging all the bricks that are breaking all my lights
We all have to struggle and hold it as our truth
It’s about as special for me as it is for you

[Verse 2]
Now I’m on the highway overpass waiting for the bus
To take me to my job in a downtown office cleaning up
The scraps of paper nonsense that the office workers throw
Into waste bins full of chewed gum and empty cans of Faygo

But I don’t know who they are or even how they look
I only know the jokes they have pinned up in their nook
This one likes football, that one has a pup
Here’s one who’s real messy and never picks it up

I clean it up before they arrive and head out to my bus
Or maybe i’ll stay downtown and get a little lunch
At the diner near my job if I have some extra cash
Or maybe I’m too tired today so I’ll go home to crash

[Chorus]
Walking in these shoes isn’t as easy as you’d like
Dodging all the bricks that are breaking all my lights
We all have to struggle and hold it as our truth
It’s about as special for me as it is for you

[Verse 3]
I keep all the doors shut to the other rooms in my house
That I don’t want to heat and no one lives here now
But me and I don’t take up very much space
Just the front room with my bed and the kitchen and the bath

I’ll make a little supper and watch a little TV
I usually feel too restless to find a book and read
So I eat too many chips and drink too many beers
And the evening drains away and I fall asleep in my chair

Sometime on a weekend I think I’ll visit a friend
And remember all our old times and see how they have been
But it feels like a lot of effort to explain myself again
So I’ll just wait and see if they’ll visit me instead

[Chorus]
Walking in these shoes isn’t as easy as you’d like
Dodging all the bricks that are breaking all my lights
We all have to struggle and hold it as our truth
It’s about as special for me as it is for you

[Verse 4]
I woke up the next morning before my alarm could go off
I was fuzzy from the beer and too tired to get up
I tried calling in to my boss but she wouldn’t answer her phone
I can’t afford to lose this job so I put some coffee on

I pulled on the same clothes i had on the night before
No one ever saw me anyway it never mattered what I wore
So I locked the door behind me and I started on my walk
Along my gravel street and downtown to my work