Long Stemmed American Beauty Rose

She wears her loveliness lightly,
Unnoticed, 'cause she's looking out,
Looking on and looking forward, pushing through
That nagging sense of doubt, you know
All those thoughts that suggest we might all be frauds
And confuses our suffering w/just rewards.
But she knows you've got to work yr way
Through all that comes through in a given day
I say know yrself and know no shame
And shed yr sadness until yr true self shows,
My long stemmed American Beauty rose.
The world is just memories and patterns of ghosts
The past is just houses they've haunted,
And if I could I would make this world disappear
And replace it w/whatever she wanted.
She wears her loveliness lightly,
She doesn't know what she's done to the boy
She doesn't know that her smile shatters shadows
She doesn't know that her voice sounds like joy
She brings thoughts that suggest that the dream is real and
That there is no damage that cannot be healed
But she knows you've got to work yr way
Through all that comes through in a given day
I say know yrself and know no shame
And shed yr sadness until yr true self shows
My long stemmed American Beauty rose.

(from  the CD "The Panicking of Animals")