Five & Dime

[Chorus]
Imagine a world where the columns of the temple come to life
At first stiff and then flexible and flowing
Striding down the street
A perfect reflection
Of their inner beauty, inner glory
Reaching here, helping there
Until separation from their brother
Is just a puzzling memory
Instead of quietly sitting
In their cubicles at work
Wondering how this came to be

[Verse 1]
Marjorie works the diner at the fivе and dime
(Which is the name of thе song)
She makes sure that no one feels alone
She’s famous for her kindness
And her Solomon’s advice
But if you saw her on the bus
You’d not look twice

[Verse 2]
And hopelessly unmodern Millie
Does not look right in a Cadillac
She just doesn’t
Hopelessly unmodern Millie
Does not sound right in comradely banter
She can’t seem to banter back
But lead her to the ledger
Of a hopeless nightmarish accounting mess
And she can bring the columns back to life
With her numerical tenderness

[Chorus]
Imagine a world where the columns of the temple come to life
At first stiff and then flexible and flowing
Striding down the street
A perfect reflection
Of their inner beauty, inner glory
Reaching here, helping there
Until separation from each other
Is just a puzzling memory
Instead of quietly sitting
In their own apartments
Five feet from each other
Watching the same show on different TVs

[Verse 3]
And then there was Moose
Who worked at the corner store
If you talked to him about, say, spirituality
He’d just shrug his huge shoulders
"What?"
He is everything you'd not want
In a refined, romantic cavalier, I suppose
But on the day they came up over that hill
Well, he out-Thorred Thor

[Verse 4]
And Quincy, he’s a hard-assed kid
Who lives under the overpass downtown
When he comes at you with a squeegee
Well, you kinda sorta wanna duck down
Sometimes you do
But if a teen unseen
A bird unheard, a struggling flower
Should fail to take to song, to take to wing
Quincy’s the first one to their side
He has that healing thing

[Chorus]
Imagine a world where the columns of the temple come to life
At first stiff and then flexible and flowing
Striding down the street
A perfect reflection
Of their inner beauty, inner glory
Reaching here, helping there
Until separation from each other
Is just a puzzling memory
Instead of quietly sitting
At the family reunion saying
Oh gosh, oh no, you don’t want a picture of me
Well, actually—we do

[Outro]
And Ramona
She works the library cart in the Third Ward