Richard Rodgers
A Cockeyed Optimist
[NELLIE FORBRUSH]
When the sky is bright canary yellow
I forget ev'ry cloud I've ever seen
So they called me a cockeyed optimist
Immature and incurably green

I have heard people rant and rave and bellow
That we're done and we might as well be dead
But I'm only a cockeyed optimist
And I can't get it into my head

I hear the human race
Is fallin' on its face
And hasn't very far to go
But ev'ry whip-poor-will
Is sellin' me a bill
And tellin' me it just ain't so

I could say life is just a bowl of Jello
And appear more intelligent and smart
But I'm stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope
And I can't get it out of my heart!
Not this heart