Not a Bird

Lyrics & Music by Steven Jackson & Brighter Things

If I could sing like a bird, I mean a bird that can really sing
I'd light outside your living room and never even speak
and I'd whistle my goodmornings and whistle my goodbyes
and hide out in the bushes and wait for you ... to cry for me

But I'm a man, I'm tethered to the ground and I'm too old to go changing
I got all the fear of gravity that other girls have given me so far
I'm not a bird, but I know that you are

If I can't catch or cage you, clip or make you make your song for me
I can't nest or feel your warbling breast breathing along with me
I'll settle for the melody, you make for every one but me ad when I need the company, I sing
(bird sounds)

If I could eat like a bird, or find out what that means
I bring you all the berries I could carry in my wings
and fan you with my feathers and peel them with my beak show you
the cotton I've been savin' for the bed that we could lay in, you and me

If I can't catch or cage you, clip or make you make your song for me
I can't nest or feel your warbling breast breathing along with me
I'll settle for the melody, you make for every one but me ad when I need the company, I sing
(bird sounds)

For a moment there's no words just the whistle of the wind - that drowns the distant drumming
That trumpets the arrival of Spring and other fleeting things - like the bird I thought I'd been becoming - - I thought I was becoming

But I'm a man, I'm tethered to the ground and I'm too old to go changing
I got all the fear of gravity that other girls have given me so far
I'm not a bird, but I know that you are

[maybe this verse, maybe straight to bird sounds] If I can't catch or cage you, clip or make you make your song for me
I can't nest or feel your warbling breast breathing along with me
I'll settle for the melody, you make for every one but me ad when I need the company, I sing
(bird sounds)