You Are Me and I Am You

Lyrics for You Are Me and I Am You

All your paintings on the wall I observed them recently like never before In many of them as a figure that stands all alone A deer drinking water or a man fishing in a boat And the florals are abundant and seem to seek inner peace Though you do paint what's around you and the things you see You're my old friend, and you're a great, great painter And in each painting tranquility is captured I noticed others with a pattern of things in fours Ducks floating by, boats sailing along the shore And all of them the number stays the same Are those four ducks your children drifting away? You live all alone in that big old three bedroom house We watch Turner Classics all night long, With all those bedrooms, you sleep on the couch Cars and ambulances whizzing by the living room so loud On the way to the hospital down the highway Do you know that of you I'm so proud? Though in many ways when I was young you were not around Do you know that you're one of my very best friends? We've been through it all haven't we? And yet now on each other we can depend I don't know what it means to be born in the depression era Eight siblings and a father who took His paychecks to the bar and spent them Don't know what it meant to eat certain animal parts Or to lose a sister to stomach cancer or a brother in the war There's just one painting of yours I keep on my wall Alexis Argüello and Aaron Pryor in the heat of their bloody brawl You painted that one for your old friend Billy in 1985 And then you gave it to me after Billy died Life's a fight for all of us isn't it That's my favorite painting you ever did It's the only painting I have Hanging on my wall and that's no bullshit It captures love and courage and true friendship I don't know what it means to walk in your shoes Or to be turning 83 in a month or two You called me once and you said you were feeling blue And you asked me do I ever feel like that too I said yeah many shades of it since I was two And you laughed and I laughed and in that moment I knew That I'm most definitely a part of you That in many ways you are me and I am you Got a big three bedroom house full of antiques just like you And I need my alone time just like you do And I'm funny and easy going just like you are too But unfortunately I've got the same quick Temper and the same short fuse like you do On this October morning I'm feeling a little blue But not nearly as blue as I'll be when I won't be able to call you I'm so grateful you've been on this planet as long as you have And I'm so proud to be able to call you Dad