The Problem With Everything

Just before Decatur, I swam up the Rio grande With a language in my pocket that I did not understand And I said hello to the neighbors Madagascar, Tennessee I've got three kids down in Roanoke They're all named after me Last time that I saw her, she had roses at her feet Just a perfect Paris sunset on a crowded Brooklyn street And with her Mississippi smile She sang songs about her home Another Carolina runaway With nowhere left to go Life's too short so why start anything That's the problem with everything He liked reading books about those West Virginia reds From his little porch in Italy, the vineyard straight ahead And in the Himalayan Mountains He saw signs for Montreal Those southern stars will move you man But they can't do it all Life's too short so why start anything That's the problem with everything Right outside Tacoma, we had lions at our door But it was nothing the Savannah didn't throw at us before And it was goodbye California Let the Ganges hold my bones Wrote a love song to Poughkeepsie And I followed it back home