A cold wind against my shoulder woke me up in the middle of the night
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An Autumn leaf was scraping against my window
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like it was trying hard to get inside
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and then a ghost that I had met before he kept me up 'til dawn
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and everything I thought was right was suddenly all wrong
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He said, "Your score is looking pretty bad"
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and then he asked me what it was that I had to show
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So I went running down a list of things
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some were real, but on some of them I lied
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'cause I felt I had to justify each breath that I'd been breathing in this life
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Then I realized I was playing into someone else's rules,
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trying to keep my score up in a game I did not choose
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Then I looked that ghost straight in the eye
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and said "You'd better not be coming back by again"
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And it's true that I don't work near as hard
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as you tell me that I'm supposed to
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I don't run as fast as I could
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but I live just the way I want to
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and that's the way I should
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October's leaves were dancing 'round
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like angels dressed in robes of Red and Gold
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but November's come and gone now
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and they're lying in the gutter out along the road
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They're gonna make their way out to the ditch or someday to the sea,
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they'll get to where they're going without the help of you or me
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and if each life is just a grain of sand
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I'm telling you man, this grain of sand is mine
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And it's true that I don't work near as hard
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as you tell me that I'm supposed to
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I don't run as fast as I could
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but I live just the way I want to
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and that's the way I should
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but I live just the way I want to
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and that's the way I should
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The Way I Should
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Iris Dement |