Manatee

Face pressed into the window
All oval nose and fingertips
I'm late as per usual
"Please collect your things, here's your pink slip"
I'll never be famous
The dream too big, there's no end to it
I thought I might be how
They swim so fast, a vortex school flow
And I move like a sea cow
Suspended silhouette glow
When I'm done they're long gone now
The blue turned grey and I'm all alone

Like a manatee I float in the sound
And the earth above is upside-down
And by the time I reach the punchline of the joke
They've all moved on
And you weren't laughing at all
Because it wasn't so funny, I seem to recall

I dreamt of a big thing
How could no one have thought of it?
And yet I kept swimming
Through the same old parts and the tired bits
'Til the blue has gone black and
The pressure's up, can't bear the weight of it

Like a manatee I float in the sound
And the sun above, a receding crown
And life's so short and I swim so slow
And by the end when I'm all done
They weren't impressed at all
Because it wasn't really that much after all

Someone came knocking
And I wasn't listening