I Can't Help it But When I'm Beside You I am Beside Myself / Invisible Boquet

Wasn’t there a carousel here just the other day—

And a sad-eyed mime with an invisible bouquet?

The funny way he held that shell so it squirted out his ear

Please don’t tell me that he’s gone that he just disappeared

Still the moon tugs at the ocean washing shells to the shore

It’s a grand cliché nothing less and nothing more

He had all the girls waiting in line — laughing at his antics

Why did I end up going all the way — across the Atlantic

Like that Carousel of my childhood back in sixty-three

When a mighty hurricane ripped it out to sea

Still the moon tugs at the ocean washing shells to the shore

It’s a grand cliché nothing less and nothing more

On a shipwrecked carousel we would play at low tides

I wanted to tell the him of my many cosmic rides

I recall his invisible bouquet and how my poor heart aches

As if there were prancing ponies in each wave that breaks

Still the moon tugs at the ocean washing shells to the shore

It’s a grand cliché nothing less and nothing more

©2016 Stefan des Lauriers

While walking through Ghirardelli Square
Where flaming dragon kites fly
I met someone positively fair
Who lifted my heartstrings high

I can't help it but when
I'm beside you
I am beside myself
I can't help it but when
I'm beside you
I am beside myself

I thought the light shone through me
Like a balloon I would be free
But there were just so many strings
That I just couldn't even see

I can't help it…

You sang a song “A Secret Love”
My face was familiar to you
Butterflies sent down from up above
Left when the song was through
I can't help it…

© 1979 Stefan des Lauriers

INVISIBLE BOQUET

Life is just a cosmic ride 
On carousel through space

With planets in a pirouette 
Making up the galaxies face

You see the girl with the chestnut hair 
And wonder how to make her day

Just sweep her off her feet 
With an invisible bouquet

Watch out for his squirting flower 
The laughing lady laughs

The comet roller coaster 
Wasn’t made for timid giraffes

You see the girl with the chestnut hair
 And wonder how to make her day

Just sweep her off her feet 
With an invisible bouquet

If you get dizzy as a pinwheel
From all the ups and downs

Imagine seeing your true love 
Smiling through a painted frown

You see the girl with the chestnut 
Hair and wonder how to make her day

Just sweep her off her feet 
With an invisible bouquet