Dad never started drinking ‘til he was thirty-five  And once he found the power  He made up for his lost time  Go outside and catch a cricket, then unplug the phone  Said their singing kept him company  When we’d leave him alone    Those were days of feeling awkward,  Being seventeen and such  Hoping I could find some comfort  In a deacon’s daughter’s touch  I’d spend time out in the desert  Feeling lonely with a friend  And we’d talk about leaving  But it was years before we did    Oh the time moves slow  And you can’t go where you want to go  But, oh the time slips away  Day after day, day after day  Day after day    Well I found myself a genie  Said she’s grant a wish for me  And all I had to do was love her  Endlessly  So I asked my dad about it and he said  Son, life’s a game we play  So I closed my eyes, held her and said  Take me away    Let’s live in a lighthouse on the Maritime shore  And we’ll hang a wreath to loneliness  Upon our lighthouse door  But we never made the ocean, she never followed through  She said the day she left  You know, I really thought you knew    Well I went back home to see my dad  And I walked through the door  To his photographs of Hank and Johnny  Lying on the floor  Hank had a hole shot through his mouth  And Johnny in the head  There were crickets in hallway  And Dad awake in bed    He was sitting in the darkness  With just a cigarette light  Said he went a little crazy  Sometime in the night  I never asked him about the pictures  Though it was clear to me  He shot ‘em for the life  And the man he wouldn’t be    these lyrics are submitted by burkul