The Way I Should - Iris DeMent

A cold wind against my shoulder

Woke me up in the middle of the night

An Autumn leaf was scraping against my window

Like it was trying hard to get inside

And then a ghost that I had met before

He kept me up until dawn

And everything I thought was right was suddenly all wrong

He said, «Your score is looking pretty bad»

And then he asked me what it was that I had to show

So I went running down a list of things

Some were real, but on some of them I lied

Because I felt I had to justify each breath

That I’d been breathing in this life

Then I realized I was playing into someone else’s rules

Trying to keep my score up in a game I did not choose

Then I looked that ghost straight in the eye

And said «You'd better not be coming back by again»

And it’s true that I don’t work near as hard

As you tell me that I’m supposed to

I don’t run as fast as I could

But I live just the way I want to

And that’s the way I should

October’s leaves were dancing around

Like angels dressed in robes of Red and Gold

But November’s come and gone now

And they’re lying in the gutter out along the road

They’re going to make their way out

To the ditch or someday to the sea

They’ll get to where they’re going

Without the help of you or me

And if each life is just a grain of sand

I’m telling you man, this grain of sand is mine