Sweet Bird

-- Joni Mitchell

Out on some borderline,
Some mark of in between
I lay down golden
In time
And woke up vanishing -

Sweet bird you are
Briefer than a falling star;
All these vain promises on beauty jars
Somewhere with your wings on time
You must be laughing.

Behind our eyes
Calendars of our lives
Circled with compromise;
Sweet bird of time and change
You must be laughing,
Up on your feathers laughing.

Golden in time,
Cities under the sand -
Power, ideals and beauty
Fading in everyone's hand.

Give me some time -
I feel like I'm losing mine
Out here on this horizon line
With the earth spinning
And the sky forever rushing...

No one knows...
They can never get that close
Guesses, at most -

Guesses based on what each set
of time and change is touching...

Guesses based on what
each set of time and change is touching...

Guesses based on
what each set of time and change is touching...