Bruce Cockburn - When You Give It Away Lyrics

Slid out of my dreams like a baby out of the nurse's hands
onto the hard floor of day
I'd been wearing OJ's gloves and I couldn't get them off
It was too early but I couldn't sleep
showered, dressed, stepped out into the heat
the parrot things on the porch next door
announced my arrival on Chartres Street
with their finest rendition of squealing brakes
Down in Kaldi's café the newspaper headlines promised new revelations
about Prince Charles' Amex account
A morose youth in old-time Austrian drag stares past his moustache at the ground
and last night's punks and fetish kids all tattoos and metal bits
and in the other corner (wearing the white trunks)
today's tourists already sweating

Deep in the city of the saints and fools
Pearls before pigs and dung become jewels
I sit down with tigers and sit down with lambs
None of them know who exactly I am

I've got this thing in my heart
I must give it today
It only lives when you give it away

Languid mandala of the ceiling fan
teases the air like a slow stroking hand
Study the faces, study the cards
Study the shadow creeping over the yard

I've got this thing in my heart
I must give it today
It only lives when you give it away

Trouble with nations, trouble with relations
Where you gonna go for some illumination?
Too much to carry too much to let go
Time goes fast learning goes slow

I've got this thing in my heart
I must give it today
It only lives when you give it away