Carport Gary

[Intro]
Shake, shake, little warning
In the grass by the morning light
Peace to every creature
But keep your heavy boots in sight

[Verse 1]
There's a garden by the roadside
Where the wild things learned to sing
Little minds in the clover
Little ghosts inside the spring

Some come looking for a monster
Some come laughing at the strange
But the flower does not owe you
A face you recognize by name

[Pre-Chorus]
So come on easy
Come on kind
Leave a little room
For another kind of mind

[Chorus]
Hey now
Who goes there?
Is that heaven in the kudzu
Or a neighbor in a chair?

Hey now
Sing it back
There's a choir in the roadside weeds
And stars behind the shack

[Verse 2]
I don't aim at children
I don't call it war
I just stand beneath the carport light
And listen past the door

There's a cricket with a modem
There's a frog with perfect pitch
There's a satellite blinking
Like it knows which man is which

[Key Verse]
And the Sugar Queen is watching
From a moon of corn syrup glass
She said Captain, quit your hollering
At the holy overpass

But the night kept on singing
Like it had a second throat
Like creation had a banjo
And a lawsuit in its coat

[Chorus]
Hey now
Who goes there?
Is that judgment in the treeline
Or a possum saying prayer?

Hey now
Sing it back
There's a choir in the roadside weeds
And stars behind the shack

[Bridge — the moment]
Are you God or are you Gary
Or one of Gary's boys?

I heard God clear His throat
I heard Gary slam his blind
I heard something with too many teeth
Whisper never mind

I saw red lights in the timber
I saw green ones in the grass
I saw my own reflection
In the windshield looking back

[Verse 3]
So I lowered my suspicion
Let the night keep being strange
Let the frogs file their pleadings
In the court of outer range

And I stood there like a question
With my shadow on the wall
Not brave enough for silence
Not lost enough to call

[Final Chorus]
Hey now
Who goes there?
Is that mercy in the static
Or a neighbor in his underwear?

Hey now
Sing it back
There's a choir in the roadside weeds
And stars behind the shack

[Outro]
I don't aim at children
I don't call it war
I just stand beneath the carport light
And listen past the door

If God is in the darkness
He can answer when He likes
But tonight He sent the tree frogs
And a thousand blinking lights
