Phaethon

The god of the sun had a son
But the kid didn’t see his dad much
The dad had to be at work at dawn
And was high overhead at lunch
But mostly, he just didn’t make time
And though he wanted to keep his son out of danger
By the time he showed up, the kid was grown up
And didn’t want advice from a stranger

It was a fairly typical death
The kid in a fiery wreck
Kind of unbelievably tragic
And kind of what we expect
What I like is what happened next
His sisters gathered down by the river
It was there that their bodies turned into poplar trees
And their teardrops turned into amber

I like having friends who write songs
You can summon them whenever you want
They’re easy to get on the phone
Even when they’re long gone
I wanted to write you a song
To preserve our friendship in amber
Between you and me, the tears of a tree
That’s an image I’d like to remember