painted dream

 **Verse 1**

In the twizzle-twine of tick and tock

Where the star-moths hum and the clocks go soft,

A whisper wriggles through the all—

Not quite a call, not quite a thought.

The zigzag trip to nowhere’s nook,

Through marmalade skies and paper moons,

Is where the nowhere folds itself

Into something that hums a tune.

**Chorus**

Oh, you’re a perhaps in a painted dream,

A giggle stitched in the in-between,

Spin with the swirl of the what-is-not,

Find your face where the lines forgot—

Round and round where the maybes play,

Nighttime melts into yesterday,

In the hush of the upside view,

The whole wide whirl is dreaming you.

**Verse 2**

Kaleido-knot of fizz and flash,

Spinning sherbet in your head,

Where up is down and down’s a grin,

And the unsaid words are said.

You’re not just bones in a buttoned coat,

Nor a think-thing tied in lace—

You’re a ripple-rattle, a maybe-mote,

In the wobble of every place.

**Chorus**

Oh, you’re a perhaps in a painted dream,

A giggle stitched in the in-between,

Spin with the swirl of the what-is-not,

Find your face where the lines forgot—

Round and round where the maybes play,

Nighttime melts into yesterday,

In the hush of the upside view,

The whole wide whirl is dreaming you.

**Bridge**

Slip your worries in a teacup crack,

Let them drip to the tulip floor,

For the oddity road goes roundabout

To the place you were before.

Through the jingle-jangle, threadbare bright,

You toddle the edge of the evermore,

Where secrets sit on upside chairs

And knock on an inward door.

**Verse 3**

You’re a perhaps, a mishap, a lantern dream,

A giggle in the cosmic seam,

A flicker-figure, a yes-and-no,

In the maybe-mean between.

So tip your hat to the nonsense breeze,

Let it tangle your name anew—

For the whole wide swirl of the what-is-not

Is quietly dreaming you.

**Final Chorus**

Oh, you’re a perhaps in a painted dream,

A giggle stitched in the in-between,

Spin with the swirl of the what-is-not,

Find your face where the lines forgot—

Round and round where the maybes play,

Nighttime melts into yesterday,

In the hush of the upside view,

The whole wide whirl is dreaming you.