Letter to Alan

When it's time for your reflection

As you wait till help arrives

See our good friend's face on the dashboard

And to know you cannot leave that cab alive

Do you know I reach for you, from later times

Once I knew

Once I knew

Now I'm walking

Now I'm walking in the dark

Like bells our dogs are yelling

All across Centennial Park

And the Sunday morning light just sends me blind

And I'm only feeling useless

Cause there's nothing I can blame

Every person, thing and circumstances

That moves this perfect day

You've left behind

And I'm thinking

Christmas 1982

Round this time a year ago

Gaskill sold his boat

And headed for the Cross to sink a few

Never trust a Wayside Chapel crowd

On Christmas Eve

They must be entertained

And if a stranger does the dying

That's O.K.!

And I'm sitting in a hotel room

Along Rue St. Louis

Dialing old phone-numbers down the line

And I measure my position

To the obstacles we crossed

The territory covered

And the parties that we lost

Those were the days

And if I don't hang around

Our old gambling grounds

It does not mean that I've forgotten

We believed, and I still do