The Man I Knew

By the time that you told me
It was already plain that you've changed
But your conscience was clean
And as white as a line of cocaine

My back to the wall of your bedroom apartment
You're talking in circles
Got your cigarettes burning
And I couldn't hide I'm afraid I was to see you so
Strange

Don't get me wrong
I've got no ill will for you
It's just been so long
I thought I'd always know you
But you're so far gone
Up where the air gets thin

You cut the kite strings
I've read my name in lights
I've seen my face in papers
But my civilian life I spent ten good years
Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting for you

You charmed a snake
You picked the card
You bent the spoon
A curved plane
Shapes change
Euclid's made to play the fool but you

I don't know what that stuff does to you
And I don't know if it's real but
I spent a decade in love with you
And I can't tell if you're here

The man I knew
I don't think that he can hear me now
So dizzy with the altitude
Just too far

Who am I to tell you to come down?
(Lucky that my (?) don't perversely go poisoned)
Who am I to tell you to come down?
(Sit back and raise a glass, a glass to ease your choices)
Who am I?
To tell you to come down

The man I knew
I don't think that he can hear me now
So dizzy with the altitude
Just too far

Tell you

Last night you came to kiss me in a dream
But when I woke
What kind of foolishness is this breathe
Out a lungful of your smoke?
I've seen you
Let it burn
I've seen you at your brightest what a mind
Let it burn
So who am I to serve you on my terms?

So who am I to tell you to come down?