Up My Sleeve

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jim Lauderdale

One of the new songs on Jim Lauderdale's album, "Patchwork River", with lyrics by Robert Hunter.

Set another place at the table, 'cause I must be dreaming
Sitting by the side of the window, your shadow is gleaming
I'm rubbing on my eyes but you don't seem to go away
I can almost half believe that you mean to stay

Talking with freight car [bedded] about the state of the nation
She told me everything she knew witout hesitation
Mysterous ways are the order of the day, we all know it
There's a heart up every sleeve but who has time to show it

Hanging round on the ground, smiling up my sleeve
To make a dream get real, got to choose what to believe
Everything comes around if you know how to wait
Resign yourself to wander hand in hand with fate

A stranger from Twenty Nine Palms dims the light of the moon
Caresses his sad guitar and plays a highway tune
Lilies of the morning wake up in the midnight baffled
Yearning or that lonesome road, some home [grown] travel

Wander through the catacombs, looking for a heart to believe in
Don't seem to find it, so I reckon that it's not the season
Wander through lost till I find a place to take my ease in
Where a handful of dark flowers bloom for their own good reason

Wisdom is a way of looking at the bright side of sadness
Prospects of joy in between interludes of madness
We all know meaning is essentially a relative thing
But what you can't exactly say, you can sometimes sing

Hanging round on the ground, smiling up my sleeve
To make a dream get real, got to choose what to believe
Everything comes around if you know how to wait
Resign yourself to wander hand in hand with fate

In convincing myself I live the only life I could
Blew at that a time or two, and that's understood
So I commend my soul to grace and accept defeat
As things that matter each vanish down a one way street

But here by the window I can see your shadow gleaming
For in at the curtain the morning sun comes streaming
I feel a beat in a place that seemed cold as stone
So I guess my heart still has a life of it's own

Hanging round on the ground, smiling up my sleeve
To make a dream get real, got to choose what to believe
Everything comes around if you know how to wait
Resign yourself to wander hand in hand with fate

Hanging round on the ground, smiling up my sleeve
To make a dream get real, got to choose what to believe
Everything comes around if you know how to wait
Resign yourself to wander hand in hand with fate

Set another place at the table, 'cause I must be dreaming