Astronomy

Lyrics

I laid my head in your lap and we flew and we flew And we got to their mother's house, we took the kids' room Painted pink and white, robin's egg blue The kids spent a few nights at their dad's And one night they shared their mother's room We slept a lot of the day on Friday We slept a lot of the day on Saturday We slept a lot of the day on Sunday too Because after all, it's been a busy year with me and the kids are busy too We spent some time looking out the small window of the room Into the backyard with the lovely winter view The dead trees coated with soft white snow And the neighbors' yard with a permanently parked turquoise fishing boat One day we gathered in the living room to play Scrabble I asked your daughter, "What is it that you want to be when you get older?" She said, "There are so many things, so many many things Right now, I love anything to do with astronomy" I said, "Well when I was your age, I knew exactly what I wanted to be" And she said, "Well, what is that?" I said, "A songbird flying from tree to tree to tree" She said, "Is that what you are?" And I said, "Yeah, I write songs and I fly around the world and I sing" She said, "Well when you fly home, could you please write and sing a song for me?" My father sat at the piano and taught the littlest one how to play a scale in the key of C When they were done, I asked my father to share with us his earliest memory He said news of his brother dying in Pearl Harbor and he asked what is mine I said, "Hearing the news of the Watergate scandal" And he said, "Ah, you must have been five" And as the adults talked about colonoscopies And stents and arteries and cholesterol medication Suddenly we lost the children Off to their rooms, in their own little worlds Doing whatever it is that kids get into While us old people talked about old boring people things Like Trump banning flights into the United States We watched on TV series like Eugene Levy's Schitt's Creek My god, my dad snores pretty loud when he falls asleep And I remembered listening to this old people crap Through the walls, when I was young And I know someday the kids will be sharing their earliest memories Long after I'm gone And I put my coat and my hat and my gloves on Finished a cup of Lipton tea As I opened the door, everybody said "Where are you going, Mark? My god, it's freezing" As I walked along the frozen cornfields, words came to me Astronomy, astronomy, I wish I knew more about astronomy But I'm old and my mind is occupied so many other things Like my expenses for 2016 and how a friend died at 60 and another at 53 Astronomy, astronomy, if you're into that it makes a lot of sense to me If this planet's not your cup of tea, I gotta say it also makes a lot of sense to me Somebody asked you if there's life on other planets You excitedly said, "Yes, there's gotta be!" You said it so convincingly I never thought about it much before but thanks to your conviction With you now I completely agree Astronomy, astronomy, I asked, "Did you ever see the movie Apollo 13?" You said, "No, what's it about?" I said, "A disrupted voyage to the moon, starring Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise" You looked down at the floor I could tell I didn't win any points with you with that You don't care about old people movies with Bill Paxton or Tom Hanks Astronomy astronomy astronomy astronomy Astronomy astronomy astronomy astronomy Who knows, maybe you'll have a career one day in astronomy And maybe one day you'll share your earliest memory with your family Maybe it'll be your sister being born when you were three As I walked along the road, the snowflakes landed on my cheeks I wrote this song for you, it's called "Astronomy" I came back, I said, "Did you ever see the movie Alien?" Her mom said, "No, she's too young for that Mark, it's too disturbing" I said, "Well what about my favorite movie when I was a kid, The Planet of the Apes?" You just looked at me with that really bored look on your face Astronomy, astronomy, next time I see you I'm going to ask you to tell me about astronomy Astronomy, astronomy, next time I see you I'm going to ask you to tell me about astronomy Cause obviously I don't know nothing about astronomy