So we're driving home after many months away
'Bout to pass through Peculiar, Missouri as we do always
It's right before we hit the loving cradle
of those hills of home
Now let me tell you, there's nothing weird
about Peculiar, Missouri
Hell, you can look it up, it's an old railroad town
That turned into a suburb that begat an exurb
That turned into a certifiable USDA small town anywhere
Everywhere, USA
You know
You've been there, even if you haven't been

Yeah, if America had a great big waiting room
It'd be somеwhere in the Midwеst
And if that waiting room
had a single crusty-ass magazine in it
Golf Digest or something
You could open to the centerfold
and find a teeny tiny ad for this hamlet of Peculiar
Proudly proclaiming, "Where the odds are with you"
It's not weird to love it here

So friend, come on, lets pull off the highway here
Let's get a little rest before a long night of driving
We've been sleeping in the saddle
for a few days now and I'm spent
Woah, look out for that pickup truck!
Goddang, people drive crazy around here
Hang a ricky here, a starboard, yeah, there you go
Although I bet you know where we're going already
Yeah, short of any public amenities
It's about the only place you can rest
and get a bite to eat past sundown
in a little town like this
And there's no public library, no YMCA, and, uh
The liquor store's closed at sundown
So it's looking like the Walmart
Yeah, we got a standing invitation
to the hideous halogen bulbs of that all night wally world
Where an uneasy truce abides
between the traveling kind
and the megacorporations that deign to make it so
So we're gonna jump in there
we're gonna have ourselves a little party

And the door slides open
And a sweet old man greets us
And that blast of hot air hits us
And can't you see how everything in here is glowing?
Resplendent with objects from China
Indonesia, Bangladesh and beyond
So clean, so sweet and so friendly
I wish it were happening somewhere else
anywhere else but here
Where you can get the same toothbrush in Alberta and Atlanta
And the same deck of cards in Tucumcari and Dubuque
I might just fall to my knees at the glory
and abundance and the sameness of all things
All things partying away in the last hours
of this God forsaken Babylon
It's like were waiting on the oceans to rise
It's like were waiting on New York City and L. A
to get swallowed
Like were waiting on our personal private apocalypses

Well, I think we might need to get out of here
'Cause it seems like I'm having a come apart
here in the cosmetics aisle
And while we consider whether or not
we're gonna steal this coral color
of lip gloss outright, or—
Well, let us also consider how we will die
Irreparably and irredeemably alone
How we may never be understood
How we may be too much for this world
We might not have done enough for the world
That greeter doesn't look so friendly anymore, does he?

We step out into the night
And you point up to a single shooting star
And then you turn to me and you say
"Give me hunger, oh, you gods that sit
and give the world its orders
Give me hunger, pain and want
Shut me out with shame and failure
from your doors of gold and fame
Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger
But leave for me a little love
A voice to speak to me at day's end
A hand to touch in the dark room
Breaking the long loneliness
In the dusk of the day, shapes blurring the days sunset
One little wondering western star
Thrust out from the changing shores of shadow
Let me wait there in the day's shape, at the dusk
And know the coming of a little love"
Let's go home
Old friends and new lovers await, good buddy
We won't be back to Peculiar before too long anyhow
Maybe let me drive the last leg of this
I'd like to sit and look out the window
I sure wish I knew
what we were supposed to do with ourselves
If you get any good ideas, won't you let me know?