You can always see the ceiling With the city looking in your bedroom window And looked upon as such I memorized the plaster until 3:00 ‘Cause memorizing mud Beats memorizing someone else’s heartache So if you’ve been out to the grassland You’ll know just what my city eyes have seen My head is splitting My heart is gasping And now you’re asking: “I know you’re leaving, Can’t stop you dreaming But why Nebraska?” Well you’d think that I was dying But new wounds seem to bleed the truest ink And I’ll tell you, after thirteen years of trying: It won’t come out the way you think Atlantic drenched in irony and sunlight I’m transported to those plains/planes Where the trains stretch on forever And no matter how far you run, it looks the same My head is splitting My heart is gasping And now you’re asking: “I know you’re leaving, Can’t stop you dreaming But why Nebraska?” I’m working now all over Hell’s half acre And window seats may have the better view My midnight hour musings notwithstanding I wish that I could just stay here and look at you My head is splitting My heart is gasping And now I’m asking “I know I’m leaving, So why do I keep on dreaming Of damned Nebraska?” You can always see the ceiling With the city looking in your bedroom window That luminescent gaze I hope it never looks away So I can see you one more time before I go