XO (56 page)

Fire and Flame

1. I’m drawn to you, like a moth to flame.

Once we met, I was never the same.

To reach that light, moths fly for miles,

That’s what I’d do, just to see your smile.

Chorus:

Love is fire, love is flame

It warms your heart, it lights the way.

It burns forever just like the sun.

It welds two souls and makes them one.

Love is fire, love is flame.

2. I know some boys as smooth as ice,

I can’t deny some look real nice.

But I don’t care if they’re slick and cool,

They don’t ignite me like you do.

Chorus.

3. Some folks hook up not to be alone.

Or they want babies and to make a home.

Nothing wrong with that, for them it’s fine.

But I like my furnace turned up high.

Chorus.

4. You can keep those days in early spring.

A gentle autumn’s not my thing.

No, I want sun and blaring heat—

Sweaty love, just you and me.

Chorus.

The Puzzle Of Your Heart

1. A quiet Sunday, the rain comes down.

Hey, you want to play a game?

I look around.

There’s a jigsaw puzzle on the shelf.

A country scene, some old-time art

Of farms and fields and stacks of hay.

We pour some wine, curl up and start.

Chorus:

One piece there, and one piece here.

Some fall in place and some won’t fit.

It’s just not clear

How I can take these mismatched parts

And put together the puzzle of your heart.

2. You want to stay, you have to go,

I think I love you but I’m confused.

I just don’t know.

Sometimes you stay, sometimes you run.

The past is good, but the future looms.

Let’s have a baby, or maybe not.

Let’s buy this place, no, we should move.

Chorus.

3. The hours pass, there’s not much done.

The middle’s harder than we thought.

It’s been fun.

But the rain’s let up. Let’s take a walk.

We’ve got an hour before it’s night.

Oh, you’d rather watch the game?

I understand. No, it’s all right.

Chorus.

4. I get back home and in the hall

I find a note. You’re outside jogging

After all.

I try a jigsaw piece or two,

But finally I admit defeat.

I guess that’s how it often goes,

Some puzzles we just can’t complete.

Chorus.

Leaving Home

1. Packing up the suitcase, filling boxes to the brim.

Years and years of memories, trying to fit them in.

I never really thought that there might come a time,

When everything would change and I’d have to say goodbye.

Chorus:

Now I’m starting over, starting over once again,

To try to make a new life, without family or friends.

In all my years on earth, there’s one thing that I know:

Nothing can be harder than to leave behind your home.

2. This room, it was my daughter’s, who’s grown and lives nearby.

She’s got babies of her own, oh, I’ll miss them till I cry.

This room is the one where my man and I would sleep.

Or sometimes never sleep at all, if you know what I mean.

Chorus.

3. And here’s the porch we’d sit on, after dinner every night.

My husband talked about his job and I’d tell him ’bout mine.

Then dishes and some cleaning, some homework and to bed.

And the joy of seeing sunrise as the day would start again.

Chorus.

4. Oh, we had quite some parties, to mark those special times.

Christmases and Easters and the Fourth of July.

Any cause for celebration, but the best, at least for me,

Was my daughter’s graduation when she got her degree.

Chorus.

5. We worked hard at our jobs and bought ourselves this home.

We gave back what we got and never hurt a soul.

But I guess I was just naïve and I didn’t see the truth:

Why judge people by their hearts? It’s simpler to use rules.

6. Now the bus drives through the gate, at the border line,

And drops me off in Juarez, deported for the crime

Of loving the great USA as if she were my own.

I turn and say goodbye to what’s been my only home.

Chorus.

Then in Spanish:

“America, the Beautiful”

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet

Whose stern impassion’d stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness.

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

Mr. Tomorrow

1. You know me by now, you’ve got to believe

You’re the number-one girl in the world for me.

I’ve sent her the papers and she’s promised to sign

It’ll just be a while, these things take some time …

Chorus:

And his words are so smooth and his eyes look so sad.

Can’t she be patient, it won’t be so bad?

But sometimes she thinks, falling under his sway,

She got Mr. Tomorrow; she wants Mr. Today.

2. Love that new dress, you’re looking real hot.

Let’s go out dancing. Oh, wait, I forgot.