***New Edit courtesy of Michael Henchman*** This was the last song I started writing before I moved away from Minneapolis. It's kind of a cryptic love song to the city and what I learned there...
CLOUDS IN THE WATER
By Kelly Brightwell, 2007
It’s a blank slate, a new place, a slant of northern light
Landfall, then St. Paul on the skyline
This city takes me so often by surprise
A question, a reflection dancing in her eyes
Chorus: Looking over and over
I’m walking down by the river
I see the clouds in the water
It’s what you’d expect from a mirror
I go headfirst, and it’s hard work to drive a wedge between
What’s aching and waking up to some forgotten dream
In deep snow, the cracks show underneath the ice
I’m waiting for my spring, I need some good advice
Chorus
Bridge: I want to live at the beginning of something
Instead of at the end
Of everything that ever came before
Just coming back
I want to live at the beginning of something
Instead of at the end
Of everything that ever came before
Just coming back again
It was a dry spell ‘til the sky fell to pieces on the ground
I picked up the good stuff, and I tried to settle down
But you just want what you want: there’s no other reason why
Don’t blame me for leaving ‘cause I never said good-bye
Chorus
It’s a blank slate, a new place, a slant of northern light