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“John started worrying about how people would remember him when he was gone. It was an incredibly vulnerable thing for him to come out with. I said to him then, ‘They’ll remember you as a fucking genius because that’s what you are. But you won’t give a shit because you’ll be up there flying across the universe.”
- Paul McCartney



I am looking down at all of you
like a child on a swing in the wind
and like an Everest climber too
I am high up and will never yield.
I know a chick who lies on the floor
with the wine bottle and salty eyes
waiting for me to open the door
even if it is just a dream or even lies
she feels lonely, she feels hipster
she likes my looks and records
but in her short life of a whipster
it doesn't help more than for seconds
Up - there - higher than blue sky
I am swinging backwards and forwards
used to cheat, doubt, lose and cry
now I call - and you move towards
now I have no names or titles
so I can be anyone you'd like me to
devoid of any accusations or idols
on a dusty red-brick lane where I grew
or over the hills and far away
like a cat who has nine lives & ten claws
I had to gnaw my own way
forgot 'bout my responsibilities and chores
now I've become a simple everyman
with the boring hair-cut and a hat
now I've become a nowhere man
who had finally unloaded his head
and if you look pretty closely
leave your sewing and cold turkey
shut up your TV which is phoney
and allow yourself to be quirky,
to have a good old sob in your hands,
to eat greasy fat pretzels on the street,
to have several nasty one-night stands,
to clear your heart & dirty your sheet
then look high up and twist your coin
and hear the squeaking swing
it will always squeak until you join
it will never shush whatever you bring
but I imagine that maybe
for the first time in your life
you open your eyes like a baby
give up rat race and strife
and everything is clear in your world
when all things are what they seem
and nothing's forsaken, nothing's sold
then my working-class hero dream
while I'm swinging across the universe
with all its naïvety, warts and worse
has been given to you
to one day come true.