They say you taught me how to talk

I bet you wish you taught me how to stop

You're far away now

I wish I could take a walk with you someplace

You explained me to our parents

English wasn't their first language

They spoke German

Hated Germans

Confusing times



Oh sister

Down midwest backseat bumpy streets

You sang my Beatles songs with me

I sang your Broadway melodies

Bad harmonies

And where would Willie Mays have been

without Jackie Robinson?

And who can say what I'd been

Without you to lead the way



After I showed some guys I could drink

You picked me off the lawn, I think

And led me to the kitchen sink

Where I got rid of it

Some nights I lay awake in awe

As squinting through the dark I saw

You peeling off your teenage bra

The door slightly ajar



Oh sister

You lived just across the hall

For eighteen summers

Eighteen falls

Until you went away to that

Weird college in Wisconsin

And where would Willie Mays have been

without Jackie Robinson?

And who can say what I'd been

Without you to lead the way



Trust yourself

And you can do anything

This I give to you



May your heart purr like a bumblebee

May all your backyards have a tree

May you always be HIV negative

I hope you meet a nice guy who

Treats women better than I do

I don't even care if he's a Jew or not



Oh sister

I remember in the temple hall

At our dear father's funeral

You sang like a nightingale

One of his own songs

And where would Willie Mays have been

Without Jackie Robinson?

And who can say what I'd been

Without you to lead the way