I met a girl in New Orleans
While I was wandering in my dreams
I said "Hey whatcha knowin', your insides
are showin'
You can't be as real as you seem"
So I opened up my eyes
To the scent of carnation and the sound
of her cries
She seemed like a ghost, with more
substance than most
I felt it each time she sighed
Yet she knows that she's alive
Of that she can be sure
Communicating that idea
Is what she's living for
And now she's singing out of time
And it don't matter if the words don't
rhyme
You ought to know that s he's alive
That's all she's living for
She wrote poetry in her youth
She'll do whatever her maker lets her do
in her later years
Hand out heartaches by the dozen
Driven her mother to tears
She knows the humor of the Queen
She learned to tap-dance in the hallway
without being seen
Talks with a smile,
as wide as a mile
So you can't tell where she's been
