Inger

A man from California’s land
Found love and life in Sweden’s
When his baby girl was born
Her heart was formed from both those regions
All the beauty of the north
And all the promise of the west
She wasn’t the full blood of either
But she was made of both their best

There on her mother’s farm they grew
For 12 long winter seasons
And her daddy sang her songs
That hinted of a world of freedoms
She would have loved to know for sure
But she was left without an answer
And could just watch as the song stopped
And he was torn to death by cancer

But the questions filled her heart
Just like his books still filled her shelf
Until she left with a guitar
To find America herself
And she searched through San Francisco
And she searched the redwood forest
For the father who had missed her
The singer and guitarist

And she wondered what her life would be
In doubts of what might happen
Walking lost in New York City
Just a college dropout in Manhattan
In a sublet room in Harlem
Holding strangers in the dark
Or in sunshine heavy mornings
Watching kids in Central Park

Find more clues about her father
Or choose to go home to her mother
Go 3,000 miles one way
Or 3,000 in the other
In a downtown music bar
She shows up early for no reason
Someone’s on stage with a guitar
So she goes inside and sees him

And he’s kind of like her dad
A bald and young Jewish bohemian
And he’s funny but he’s sad
And she thinks maybe I won’t leave again
She doesn’t know a thing
But it’s the love he’s always needed
Sometimes lovers win
But sometimes love dies defeated

And in 5 years time she’s free again
And Sweden calls her softly now
And she’s 30 and she’s beautiful
And she doesn’t cry so often now
And she thinks of all the lives she’s lived
And the time spent in between
And when she plays her daddy’s songs
She knows exactly what they mean