I rode my bike to town today Wobbling down the path I knew the kids would see me I love it when they laugh And I wish I were a camera And I could slice time like a knife Seeing stories in the faces And crystallizing life Wish I were a camera I wish it all the time It gives my eyes a reason It gives my life a rhyme I'd be a lens that could see souls A shutter that never shuts I'd have film that lasts forever And I would live in huts In the jungles of South America Like my father before the war I'd find out where we came from And what this life is for And I wish I were a camera I wish it all the time It gives my eyes a reason It gives my life a rhyme And I wish I were a camera I wish it all the time It gives my eyes a reason It gives my life a rhyme I would climb right off this planet On the clearest night of all And photograph the future When it finally comes to call I would save up all these images These instants in a box And when I am old and lonely They could cover up the clocks And I wish I were a camera I wish it all the time It gives my eyes a reason It gives my life a rhyme I wish that I could shoot at night And leave without a trace And catch my lover's sleeping smile By the starlight on her face But I think mostly that l'd see children 'Cause they haven't learned to hide And they watch me on my bicycle And laugh with me as I ride