Lyrics The Way I Should - Iris DeMent

The Way I Should

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