Cherry Tree

(Robert Buck/Natalie Merchant)
 Over your shoulder, please don't mind me
 if my eyes have fallen onto your magazine
 Oh I've been watching and wondering
 why your face is changing with every line you read.
 For all those lines and circles, to me, a mystery.
 Eve pull down the apple and give a taste to me.
 For if she could it would be wonderful, but my pride is in the way.
 I cannot read to save my life, I'm so ashamed to say.
 I live in silence, afraid to speak
 of my life in darkness because I cannot read.
 But all those lines and circles, to me, a mystery.
 Eve pull down the apple and give a taste to me.
 For if she could it would be wonderful.
 Then I wouldn't need someone else's eyes to see what's in front of me.
 No one guiding me.
 It makes me humble to be so green
 at what every kid can do when he learns A to Z,
 But all those lines and circles just frighten me
 and I fear that I'll be trampled if you don't reach for me.
 Before I run I'll have to take a fall.
 And then I pick myself up, so slowly
 I'll devour every one of those books in the Tower of Knowledge.