America

America, Simon & Garfunkel

[Readers, I have wanted to share this song with you for a very, very long time but I was saving it (although I'm not sure what I was saving it for).  This is my absolute favorite song in the whole universe-- as of today I have played the song 449 times on iTunes.  It's the most beautiful thing I have ever heard, both in terms of its poetry and in terms of the melody.  I hope you enjoy it.]

"Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together.

I've got some real estate here in my bag."

So we bought a pack of cigarettes,

And Mrs. Wagner pies.

And walked off to look for America.

"Kathy," I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh,

"Michigan seems like a dream to me now."

It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw.

I've come to look for America.

Laughing on the bus,

Playing games with the faces.

She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy.

I said "Be careful, his bow tie is really a camera."

"Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat."

"We smoked the last one an hour ago."

So I looked at the scenery,

She read her magazine.

And the moon rose over an open field.

"Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping.

"I'm empty and aching and I don't know why."

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike.

They've all come to look for America.