Plywood Superman

Down at the drugstore
Where they sell medicine
Back in the corner
Stands a plywood Superman
He never saves nobody from nothing
He just leans against the wall
Looking sad

Me, I go climbing on my broken ladder
Aiming for high places, but I never quite can
Lay two hands on the heart of the matter
Sometimes I feel like that plywood Superman

Last night at the truck stop
The cashier at the diesel desk
Stopped to talk to me as I paid for my beer
She's single with 2 kids
Says she loves Las Vegas
Her dream's one day some rich man
Will take her away from here

When she goes climbing on her broken ladder
She's searching for some sweet, far-off promised land
But nobody never breaks free of nothing
Wrapped in the arms of a plywood superman

Now my old daddy, he worked in a factory
And he used to beat on me
With his mind not his hands
And though for ten years he's laid
In that grave in Birmingham
To this day I still hear him saying
What a useless thing I am

When I go climbing on my broken ladder
I'm searching for something
But what I don't understand
Is how you can climb forever
And still never reach nothing...
Trapped in your life like some plywood superman