Drinking coffee, have to stay awake and think of you   Aching awfully, knowing my perceptions aren't true   If you were what I've made you, not as your acts betrayed you   How could I keep away?   But things still lead me on, a word and then it's gone   What lives here and what's stray?   Tell me please, what's signal and what's noise?      Interference, or is that the broadcast that I've got?   Your appearance renders me incapable of thought   Here's your voice on the phone, your sweet and sullen tone   What am I to believe?   Did you blow me a kiss, or was that just tape hiss?   When I hang up, will you grieve?   Have pity, now, what's signal and what's noise?      Here's your photo, I found it cleaning out my bottom drawer   When you wrote, oh, I couldn't keep from wondering what for   Through the gray, through the grain, a picture taken in the rain   That doesn't show your face   Connected dots don't make a line, you confuse me every time   Confusion has its place   But just this once   What's signal and what's noise?