RIP David Berman 1

Friends are warmer than gold when you're old
And keeping them is harder than you might suppose
Lately, I tend to make strangers wherever I go
Some of them were once people I was happy to know

Mounting mileage on the dash
Double darkness falling fast
I keep stressing, pressing on
Way deep down at some substratum
Feels like something really wrong has happened
And I confess I'm barely hanging on

All my happiness is gone
All my happiness is gone
It's all gone somewhere beyond
All my happiness is gone

Ten thousand afternoons ago
All my happiness just overflowed
That was life at first and goal to go
Me and you, and us and them
And all those people way back when
All our hardships were just yardsticks then, you know
You know

It's not the purple hills
It's not the silver lakes
It's not the snowcloud shadowed interstates
It's not the icy bike chain rain of Portland, Oregon
Where nothing's wrong and no one's asking
But the fear's so strong it leaves you gasping
No way to last out here like this for long

'Cause everywhere I go, I know
Everywhere I go, I know

All my happiness is gone

All my happiness is gone

It's all gone somewhere beyond

All my happiness is gone

The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind
When the here and the hereafter momentarily align
See the need to speed into the lead suddenly declined
The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind

And as much as we might like to seize the reel and hit rewind
Or quicken our pursuit of what we're guaranteed to find
When the dying's finally done and the suffering subsides
All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind
All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind

Nights that won't happen
Time we won't spend
Time we won't spend
With each other again
With each other again

Ghosts are just old houses dreaming people in the night
Have no doubt about it, hon, the dead will do alright
Go contemplate the evidence and I guarantee you'll find
The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind

Nights that won't happen
Time we won't spend
Nights that won't happen
Never ever again
Nights that won't happen
Never reaching the end
Nights that won't happen
Never even begin
Never even begin

This world is like a roadside inn and we're the guests inside
And death is a black camel that kneels down so we can ride
And when the dying's finally done and the suffering subsides
All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind
All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind

On nights that won't happen
Time we won't spend
Time we won't spend
With each other again
Nights that won't happen
Never reaching the end
Nights that won't happen
We can't even begin
We can't even begin