I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off
I wish I was a sacrifice but somehow still lived on
I wish I was a sentimental ornamnet you hung on
The christmas tree, I wish I was the star that went on top,
I wish I was the evidence
I wish I was the grounds for fifty million hands up raised and opened toward the sky

I wish I was a sailor with someone who waited for me
I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as me
I wish I was a messenger, and all the news is good
I wish I was the full moon shining off a camaro's hood

I wish I was an alien, at home behind the sun,
I wish I was the souvenir you kept your house key on
I wish I was the pedal break that you depended on
I wish I was the verb to trust, and never let you down

I wish I was the radio song, the one that you turned up,
I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish,
I guess it never stops.
-Pearl Jam, Wishlist


Lots of vivid imagry in this one. Wishes for desired emotions, needs. The need to once and a while explode, the need to burn in glory but the need to live. The need to be needed. The need to be beautiful.

I like the title, especially. Wishlist. The thing that every child makes at the first cold snap in expectation of Christmas. The roll that most students have to write at some point in time of life goals. They get harder and harder to write. When I was young, I would walk through Toys R Us in sheer awe. Making mental notes with verbal commentary. "I want this one and this one and that one!" I guess they don't get harder to write, we just begin to understand that we can't get that one and that one and this one. I could write a fast list of fifty things that I want to do, feel, be, or experience before I die. But there is a part of me, even if I stop my brain from stopping me, that will still voice the impossibility of it all. We edit our own wishlists to compensate for the lack of magic found in Santa Claus.

I guess that looks pretty cynical, or at least pessimistic. But the thing is, that even though we throw in logic where it doesn't belong, we still wish. The important part isn't that I realize that I will never make it to the moon, but that I can still wish that I could.

I wish I may, wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight....