On a brittle yellow paper, scrawled across the page
is the remnant of a man who never reached my age

faded graphite clinging on after all of this time
faded memory of the fact that signature was mine

like a relic unearthed from a world not understood
hard to comprehend that someone once thought that was good

haven't much in common with the child who wrote it down,
on a plastic children's table, not far from the ground
--
ain't it strange
how signatures change
ain't it odd
how we sign our own names
ain't it strange
how my signature changed

I must remain aware that it's prob'ly not done changing yet
--
son is learning how to write his name all by himself
now I'm signing slips to try and hold onto my health

our hands always tremble when we try to hold the pen
his 'cause he's just learning, and mine 'cause I'm half dead

someday soon he'll sign a paper punctuate my life
someday he will write his newborn's name with his dear wife
--
ain't it strange
how signatures change
ain't it great
how they don't stay the same
ain't it strange how my signature's changed

won't you sign on the line so it takes some more time to forget
--
and stacks of cardboard boxes filed away in some warehouse
filled with files that document their lives
and every single record every single case in there
was signed by someone from another time

the notaries and lawyers who helped put all of them there
some are old and some have long since died
and you might never die in all the places your name sits
on the off chance it will still be recognized
--
tombstones dot the earth in any city you're around
epitaphs get blurry as they're covered up by ground

I recall a graveyard in the town where I grew up
overtime besieged by busy roads and tattoo shops

old names are cemented in the Hollywood sidewalks
pavement tombstones without meaning growing with the clock

they will put me in the ground I'll sign my name no more
and who I was or what I did will fade to blurry lore
--
ain't it strange
how signatures change
ain't it great
how they don't stay the same
ain't it strange
how my signature changed

I must remain aware that I am not the first or the
last