My Dad's Face

When I look in the mirror I see my dad's face

Where my face used to be

Then I realize that he was about my age

When he started his own family

Then my radicalism, all my college marxism

Starts drifting on out to deep sea

When I look in the mirror and I see my dad's face

Where my face used to be

When I was a kid I used to look at my dad

And I'd say, this is who I am not.

He used bryl-creem, I used hair spray

He was fat, I was skinny

He drank beer, I smoked pot

But now my feet are disappearing beneath an ocean of beer

And not so mysteriously

When I look at my face I see in it's place

My dad's physiognomy

I used to look at my friends, they looked fifty years older

Some nights when I'd get too stoned

That's when I believed time was a visible line

With it's end and beginning both shown

Now I know that's not true

But I've still got an idea pretty much of what I can expect

When I look in the mirror and I see my dad's mug

Sitting there right on top of my neck

Well, my dad had it rough, he couldn't keep his true love

He never reached his sought-after perfection

So as I headed down my own life's road

I headed straight in the other direction

Now, when I turn around, he's not so far away

And we're on the same road, I can see

When I look in the mirror and I see my dad's face

Where my face used to be