90 degrees with barely a breeze
As I sit here on the beach
The pounding roar of the surf and the shore
Underscores how you’re so far out of reach
You’re in the gloom in this middle of June
Waiting for the sun to burn through
Subsumed and engrossed in the opposite coast
I’m still stunned at what became of you
It’s the last day of school, we’re so far apart
Is it too late to mend broken fences and hearts
Our little girl made the grade, we ought to celebrate
Together watching her frolic in the surf and the sun
It’s the last day of school, is it too late to fix
All the pieces of our own world that we blew to bits
I still believe there’s an Us, let’s just sit down and discuss
All the good things that made us work well as one
90 degrees and the buses wheeze
As they inch along through the city
The traffic stalls and barely crawls
And it’s so humid and sweaty and gritty
While I’m in this heat trying to make my ends meet
You’re reaching the end of your road
On the verge of success out there in the west
You close the book on the whole episode
It’s the last day of school, we’re so far apart
Is it too late to mend broken fences and hearts
You’re about to graduate, we ought to celebrate
Now that you’ve reached this tremendous momentous milestone
It’s the last day of school, is it to late to repair
The broken pieces of Us scattered everywhere
You may have busted your tail, readings off the scale
But don’t think for a minute you did it alone
College degrees, have mercy G-d please
I’m about to take the stage
It’s been 19 years of grinding these gears
About time I do this at my age
Such a long ride, you should be here at my side
You deserve this pride of place
No one else knows how my whole story goes
Just you and you can’t be replaced
It’s the last day of school, we’re so far apart
Is it too late to mend broken fences and hearts
I’m about to graduate, we ought to celebrate
We could have if only we’d have seen things through
It’s the last day of school, it’s too late to go back
The past is history, the present’s a fact
The future’s ahead, and after all here’s been said
I made it to this place with no thanks to you
©2023 The Hesh Inc.
This song dates back to the summer of 2006, my first summer back on the East Coast after getting divorced in Los Angeles. I still harbored a far-fetched hope, if not of getting back together with my former spouse, at least returning to speaking terms so we could celebrate our daughter's milestones together. I was sitting on the beach in Asbury Park, missing my daughter on the opposite coast, and thinking that her mother and I should be watching her celebrate her last day of school in the surf and sun. But no, it didn't quite happen like that, did it.
In the next verse and chorus, my ex is finishing her medical education in California, while I'm inching along behind the wheel of a limousine in New York. For all of me shlepping all over the country for her career, you'd think I would be the one celebrating with her. But no, she took the opportunity of moving out west to reinvent herself, and the new version of her decided she didn't need the old version of me. (Much of this saga has been documented in Soul In Exile Redux, my most recent album as of this posting.) And in the third verse and chorus, I was looking forward to the day I'd finally finish my own formal education ... without her, and better off that way.
Musically, this draws its melody from any number of Israeli Eurovision entries. I banged it out on the piano but never recorded it or performed it live. I considered it for the 'heartbreak opus' I was concocting at the time in the aftermath of divorce, but that may or may not still be on the table.