I French-kissed a girl from a world war novel
She made me pancakes in her bombshelled hovel
She left to find family, so I went to France
Where I met the Dauphine in the court at a dance
We went promenading down her marble floor
Until young revolutionaries banged down the door
She smuggled me out through a passage beneath
I came up through a sewer with moss in my teeth
And I washed at a river 'til my ship came in
So I could fight the Confederates' army again
Playing cards in the orchard with runaway slaves
'Til I up and got kidnapped by Indian braves
And we went on a vision quest deep in the woods
Where nightmares all flew, freezing me where I stood
They helped me to realize just where I should go
So I shook all their hands and went looking for home

I've been flying above
Having adventures and looking for love
I faced the grim reaper and sent him the bill
He doesn't mind since I'm gonna get killed
When I die, let no-one grieve
'Cause I would be smiling if I could breathe

I went to the site of my grandparents' graves
In the back of a church where I'd almost got saved
And the dead people's ghosts all complained on the wind
Of their friends and descendants who'd forgot about them
I left them to visit my childhood home
A house by the woods where the dinosaurs roam
I greeted the lizards and we all reminisced
Of when I was a kid, back before I'd been kissed
And they let me ride in their time machine
Reversing the clocks with a clank and a wheeze
The bombs unexploded, divorces reversed
I saw a dead man jumping out of his hearse
The machine made a stranger of each of my friends
I awkwardly kissed each ex-girlfriend again
Then I hit the beginning and all was forgot
And there was my mom giving birth on a cot

I've been flying above
Having adventures and looking for love
I faced the grim reaper and sent him the bill
He doesn't mind since I'm gonna get killed
When I die, let no-one grieve
'Cause I would be smiling if I could breathe

I previewed the future on old T.V. screens
As I shot towards the present in that time machine
Then I saw the woods so I stopped and I parked
Said, "Thanks for the ride," and walked on in the dark
The night was so black that I hardly could see
But I'd seen the future and knew just where to be
So I went to the hospital near where I live
And past all the blood donors waiting to give
A room in the E.R. was waiting for me
I climbed on the bed and wrapped up in the sheets
The doctor there told me I was ready to go
That I'd suffered head trauma an hour ago
And that all of the things that I'd done and I'd seen
Were just my brain's final fantastical dream
And in another few seconds my journey would end
So I made him promise that he'd tell me when

I've been flying above
Having adventures and looking for love
I faced the grim reaper and sent him the bill
He doesn't mind since I'm gonna get killed
When I die, let no-one grieve
'Cause I would be smiling if I could breathe

"Ready?
When."