(Kathy Korniloff)
Eleven years old when Janis Joplin died
It was a time in her life full of feminine pride
A Wrinkle in Time and The Wind in the Willows
Hiding behind the summer clothes that billowed
On the line
With a head full of music and playful heart
With her two best friends you couldn`t tear them apart
Reading notes and measures and Harriet the Spy
King of the mountain and a big blue sky
So open wide
Running like a girl
You go sailing past my window chased by tracers of the sun
Running like a girl
Meet me in the underbrush remember solid ground we touched
In our forested fortresses
Growing up fast on the edge of a storm
There was a peace to keep, a job to perform
Learning well how to settle into so polite
Quietly there by a TV light
So close inside
Proud and stoic with a sense of duty
No one there to notice her developing beauty
if they could have listened there was no mistaking
The dissonent sound of a young heart breaking
Open wide
Watching girlfriends lining up one by one
To pledge allegiance to the women they would soon become
They all quit sports and got a D in math
And you began to follow a narrow path
Once open wide
Running like a girl
You go sailing past my window blazing trails against the wind
Out into this world
Finding out about your difference I will give you love`s assistance
Now that I am aware of you
I was stranded outside and I couldn`t speak
Needed a soothing brain balm just to get through the week
I was feeling amputated from my neck to my shoes
And the gulf between my voice and my heart was ooh
So far and wide
When I woke from this dream I was thinking of you
How you`ve always known just what to do
With your skinny brown legs and your face to the sun
Nothing you`ve known has ever come undone
Heart open wide
Running like a girl
Tearing up my neighborhood under a big blue sky
Running like a girl
Meet me in the underbrush remember solid ground we touched
