down at the drugstore where they sell medicine back in the corner stands a plywood superman he never saves nobody from nothing he just leans against the wall looking sad me i go climbing on my broken ladder aiming for high places but i never quite can lay two hands on the heart of the matter sometimes i feel like that plywood superman last night at the truck stop the cashier at the diesel desk stopped to talk to me as i paid for my beer she s single with 2 kids says she loves las vegas her dream s one day some rich man will take her away from here when she goes climbing on her broken ladder she s searching for some sweet far off promised land but nobody never breaks free of nothing wrapped in the arms of a plywood superman now my old daddy he worked in a factory and he used to beat on me with his mind not his hands and though for ten years he s laid in that grave in birmingham to this day i still hear him saying what a useless thing i am when i go climbing on my broken ladder i m searching for something but what i don t understand is how you can climb forever and still never reach nothing trapped in your life like some plywood superman