I was half asleep while attending something in the middle of the night. Was it a noise outside that awoke me, or a cat going through the pet door, or just something in my nervous system? Tag it with ‘things I’ll never know’.
But, momentarily awake (with Tucker licking my knuckles and purring) (did he wake me?), I drifted through fragmenting dream memories. Lyrics from “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand” (Primitive Radio Gods, 1996) join the dream memories.
Am I alive or thoughts that drift away?
Does summer come for everyone?
Can humans do as prophets say?
And if I die before I learn to speak
Can money pay for all the days I lived awake
But half asleep?
h/t to Genius.com
The song is slight, mildly catchy in a hypnotic sort of way but I enjoy reflecting on the lyrics and their twists. What’s usually most memorable from this song for me is B.B. King singing, “I’ve been down-hearted, baby, ever since the day.”
Michael Seidel, writer 
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