Lyrics The Picture - Loudon Wainwright III

The Picture

There are pictures on the piano
Pictures of the family
Mostly my kids but there’s an old
Picture of you and me
You were five and I was six
In 1952
That was forty years ago
How could it be true?
We were sitting outside drawing
At a table meant for cards
And it must have been in autumn
Falling leaves in the front yard
With a shoe box full of crayons
Full of colors oh so bright
In a picture in a plastic frame
A snapshot black and white
You were looking at my paper
Watching what I drew
It was natural: I was older
Thirteen months more than you
A brother and a sister
A little boy and girl
And whoever took that picture
Captured our own world
A brother needs a sister
To watch what he can do
To protect and to torture
To boss around—it's true
But a brother will defend her
For a sister’s love is pure
Because she thinks he’s wonderful
When he is not so sure
In the picture there’s a fender
Of our old Chevrolet
Or Pontiac—our dad would know
Surely he could say
But dad is dead and we grow old
It’s true that time flies by
And in forty years the world has changed
As well as you and I