There is a middle-aged woman, she's dragging her feet   She carries baskets of clothes to a laundromat   While the Mexican children kick rocks into the street   And they laugh in a language I don't understand   But I love them, why do I love them?      So the neighborhood's dimming as I smoke on the porch   Watch the people as they pass enclosed inside their cars   And on their faces just anger or disappointment   I start wishing there was something I could offer them   Consolation, could I offer them?      Never sad in their suburbs robots, water the lawn   And everything they touch gets dusted spotless   So they start to believe that they've not touched anything at all   And the cars in the driveway only multiply   Well they are lost in their houses   And heard them sing in the shower   Making speeches to their sister on the telephone   Saying, "You come home, come here   Don't stay so far away from me   This weather has me wanting love more tangible   Something I can hold because it's getting cold"      I said, "Hold up our fists to the flame in the sky   To block out the light that's reaching for our eyes   Because, because it would blind us, it will blind us"      I have locked my actions in the grooves of routine   So I may never be free of this apathy   But I wait for a letter that's coming to me   She sends me pictures of the ocean in an envelope   So there still is hope, yes I can be healed   There is someone looking for what I concealed   In my secret drawer, in my pockets deep   You will find the reasons that I can't sleep   And you will still want me   But you still want me   Will you still want me?      Well, I say, "Come for the week, you can sleep in my bed"   And pass through my life like a dream through my head   It will, it will be easy, I'll make it easy   All I have for the moment is a song to pass the time   A melody to keep me from worrying   Some simple progression to keep my fingers busy   And words that are sure to come back to me and they'll be laughing   And they'll be laughing      My mediocrity   My mediocrity   They'll be laughing   They'll be laughing   They'll be laughing