For The Roses

I heard it in the wind last night
 It sounded like applause
 Did you get a round resounding for you
 Way up here
 It seems like many dim years ago
 Since I heard that face to face
 Or seen you face to face
 Though tonight I can feel you here
 I get these notes
 On butterflies and lilac sprays
 From girls who just have to tell me
 They saw you somewhere
 In some office sits a poet
 And he trembles as he sings
 And he asks some guy
 To circulate his soul around
 On your mark red ribbon runner
 The caressing rev of motors
 Finely tuned like fancy women
 In thirties evening gowns
 Up the charts
 Off to the airport
 Your name's in the news
 Everything's first class
 The lights go down
 And it's just you up there
 Getting them to feel like that
 Remember the days when you used to sit
 And make up your tunes for love
 And pour your simple sorrow
 To the soundhole and your knee
 And now you're seen
 On giant screens
 And at parties for the press
 And for people who have slices of you
 From the company
 They toss around your latest golden egg
 Speculation well who's to know
 If the next one in the nest
 Will glitter for them so
 I guess I seem ungrateful
 With my teeth sunk in the hand
 That brings me things
 I really can't give up just yet
 Now I sit up here the critic
 And they introduce some band
 But they seem so much confetti
 Looking at them on my TV set
 Oh the power and the glory
 Just when you're getting a taste for worship
 They start bringing out the hammers
 And the boards
 And the nails
 I heard it in the wind last night
 It sounded like applause
 Chilly now
 End of summer
 No more shiny hot nights
 It was just the arbutus rustling
 And the bumping of the logs
 And the moon swept down black water
 Like an empty spotlight