Nike

Nike is the winged goddess of victory. There is a Nike box we have saved in the bedroom closet to wrap Christmas presents in and I think it inspired this song. In the old days, foundlings were left on the doorstop in a nondescript box. I think a sneaker box makes it much more interesting. If you were abandoned in a box that bears the name of a winged goddess, then it seems more plausible to dream of a return to the stars.

Nike

Nike was left in a box at the door And grew to the height of a mid sized boy The child was as strange as a child can be Talked to himself mysteriously He was named for the shoe on the side of the box And never stopped thinking of the folks he’d lost He kept that box for the journey he planned To the stars and beyond to an alien land

Chorus: My momma was a comet at a country fair My daddy was a meteorite I was found in a box when I touched down And I’m waiting for the circus to come back to town

We looked in the shoe box late one night While he was dreaming of the milky way And there was an engine of a mighty ship Primed and ready for his long trip Elastic bands and alarm clock hands Copper wire, St Elmo’s fire A calculator and a spaceman’s hat And the swoop on the side of the cardboard craft

Chorus:

When we awoke, little Nike was gone An empty bed with the clothes he’d shed He’d flown away and he’s flown that far Through an open window to the field of stars To the circus tent and the wheel of light The moonlit chairs and the flying trapeze He flew his box to infinities end And we never spoke his name again

Chorus: