Glassy-Eyed Man (Spoken Word with Music)
Lyrics:
Glassy-Eyed Man
There is a glassy eyed man who greets everyone
He just wants you to eat and be good
He’s rejected 100 times a day by stone-faced looks
For twenty years ten hours a day he’s stood
Trying to convince passers-by to give it a spin
He just looks at everyone and gives them a grin
You say you’ve ate and he just asks when
If you don’t sit down he’ll just say thank you
The man down the way is missing all his buttons
His shirt and his pants hang off him weakly
He’s shredding fabric everywhere that he goes
One wonders how can such a confident man appear so meekly
Now picture all your favorite places, they never let him inside
The fact is that he was rejected by every job he’s applied
You can tell by his cadence that nothing disturbed his stride
But here he is, his whole self where everyone can get a good look
The sweeping man with his hand up just wants to be left alone
I’m not a trash man he says - I won’t talk about it
But he’s getting hassled despite having no answers
He prefers to say nothing when he can say whatever he sees fit
When shoved he might say what to do I really have to submit
He’s up early picking up after the man who can have a bad time anywhere
He’d be an unnecessary being if everybody would do their share
So if you ask him for directions he’d rather not discuss it
The watch salesman peddles around the busy beach
But that’s only after he got thrown out of the station
For being a nuisance and causing another commotion
The woman turned him down and the locals gave him a citation
Everybody these days buys their dated equipment from a fancy store
You know the ones where they’ll spray you as you walk in the door
Hands full, pockets empty, he navigates the shore
While million dollar boats are visible in the distance
The pressured and pressed man’s hat flies off
He’s got somewhere to be and he’s running late
He’s afraid to go out but this is his business
If you look at him too long you’ll see that he’s ready to abdicate
See to it that you don’t get lost in the face of despair
You can see in his face he doesn’t think it’s quite fair
From the whites of his eyes you can tell he had quite the scare
Whether he’ll make it or not you’ll never know because you can’t keep up
A completely bent in half woman waddles alone
The pain of her years weighs down her body
She nearly slips and falls on all of the rocks
Her predicament would be helped if her shoes weren’t so shoddy
The line forms behind her and somebody yells
The bag dragging behind her rings like bells
You just know she’s never stayed in fancy hotels
What will she accomplish as her exercises are fruitless
A man sits by the fountain and cries
He’s hurt by something but he speaks as a foreigner
Even if they wanted to no one can comfort him
You can dismiss him or pretend he’s a professional mourner
No matter what the truth is, no one is in his corner
Obviously you wonder out loud what is the cause of his pain
Why is it so hard when the meaning can be so plain
Glassy-Eyed Man
There is a glassy eyed man who greets everyone
He just wants you to eat and be good
He’s rejected 100 times a day by stone-faced looks
For twenty years ten hours a day he’s stood
Trying to convince passers-by to give it a spin
He just looks at everyone and gives them a grin
You say you’ve ate and he just asks when
If you don’t sit down he’ll just say thank you
The man down the way is missing all his buttons
His shirt and his pants hang off him weakly
He’s shredding fabric everywhere that he goes
One wonders how can such a confident man appear so meekly
Now picture all your favorite places, they never let him inside
The fact is that he was rejected by every job he’s applied
You can tell by his cadence that nothing disturbed his stride
But here he is, his whole self where everyone can get a good look
The sweeping man with his hand up just wants to be left alone
I’m not a trash man he says - I won’t talk about it
But he’s getting hassled despite having no answers
He prefers to say nothing when he can say whatever he sees fit
When shoved he might say what to do I really have to submit
He’s up early picking up after the man who can have a bad time anywhere
He’d be an unnecessary being if everybody would do their share
So if you ask him for directions he’d rather not discuss it
The watch salesman peddles around the busy beach
But that’s only after he got thrown out of the station
For being a nuisance and causing another commotion
The woman turned him down and the locals gave him a citation
Everybody these days buys their dated equipment from a fancy store
You know the ones where they’ll spray you as you walk in the door
Hands full, pockets empty, he navigates the shore
While million dollar boats are visible in the distance
The pressured and pressed man’s hat flies off
He’s got somewhere to be and he’s running late
He’s afraid to go out but this is his business
If you look at him too long you’ll see that he’s ready to abdicate
See to it that you don’t get lost in the face of despair
You can see in his face he doesn’t think it’s quite fair
From the whites of his eyes you can tell he had quite the scare
Whether he’ll make it or not you’ll never know because you can’t keep up
A completely bent in half woman waddles alone
The pain of her years weighs down her body
She nearly slips and falls on all of the rocks
Her predicament would be helped if her shoes weren’t so shoddy
The line forms behind her and somebody yells
The bag dragging behind her rings like bells
You just know she’s never stayed in fancy hotels
What will she accomplish as her exercises are fruitless
A man sits by the fountain and cries
He’s hurt by something but he speaks as a foreigner
Even if they wanted to no one can comfort him
You can dismiss him or pretend he’s a professional mourner
No matter what the truth is, no one is in his corner
Obviously you wonder out loud what is the cause of his pain
Why is it so hard when the meaning can be so plain