Lyrics

Knuckle Boy

School kids staring out a window, warm May morning, long ago
Daydreams blowin? on the breezes, summer?s teasing undertow
Teacher calls out for attention, brand-new student, all heads rise
It?s a double-jointed knuckle boy,
and his bear with a jacket-button eye

Everyone has a story and a story is sometimes no more than just the pictures that you keep in your mind.
Everybody?s a story and a story is sometimes no more than just a picture inside

I guess I?ll never really know just how he made his knuckles go
A double-jointed knuckle show a recess parking lot surprise
The double-jointed knuckle boy
and his bear with the jacket button-eye

Baseball sunny afternoon, all day freedom, end of June
All the neighbor kids are there with abandoned shirts and abandoned care
Look who?s heading out to right field, bright red wagon right behind
It?s the double-jointed knuckle boy,
and that bear with the jacket-button eye

Everyone has a story and a story is sometimes no more than just the pictures that you keep in your mind.
Everybody?s a story and a story is sometimes no more than just a picture inside

One bright swollen morning, not a word of warning,
A moving van pulls into a drive
Clanky gear-shift sound, window rolling down,
one small hand is waving
Goodbye. Goodbye.

Summer days begin to fade, and soon the school bell sings again
Push your legs into your long pants, squirm against the regimen
Faces settle into place, and solemnly all realize
No double-jointed knuckle boy, no bear with the jacket button eye

Now I?ve seen my share of classrooms,
seen my share of days gone by
Seen a million different faces, seen some brilliant moments die
But who?s that knocking on my memory
from the porch steps of my mind
Never fading, never changing, always ageless, always spry
On the ready out in right field, sprung to catch one on the fly
The reappearing knuckle boy
And that bear with the jacket button eye.

Everyone has a story and a story is sometimes no more than just the pictures that you keep in your mind.
Everybody?s a story and a story is sometimes no more than just a picture inside