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Darkness at the break of noon Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon There is no sense in trying.
Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn Suicide remarks are torn
From the fools gold mouthpiece The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.
Temptation's page flies out the door You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar You feel the moan but unlike before
You discover That you'd just be
One more person crying.
So don't fear if you hear A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.
As some warn victory, some downfall Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all Except hatred.
Disillusioned words like bullets bark As human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the
dark It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much Is really sacred.
While preachers preach of evil fates Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates And goodness hides behind its gates
But even the President of the United States Sometimes must have
To stand naked.
And though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.
Advertising signs that con you Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on All around you.
You lose yourself, you reappear You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear That somebody thinks
They really found you.
A question in your nerves is lit Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Ensure you not to quit To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it That you belong to.
But though the masters make the rules For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.
For them that must obey authority That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destiny Speak jealously of them that are free
Do what they do just to be Nothing more than something
They invest in.
While some on principles baptize To strict party platforms ties
Social clubs in drag disguise Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize And say "God Bless him".
While one who sings with his tongue on fire Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole That he's in.
But I mean no harm nor put fault On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.
Old lady judges, watch people in pairs Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares Propaganda, all is phony.
While them that defend what they cannot see With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally Life sometimes
Must get lonely.
My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards False goals, I scoff
At pettiness which plays so rough Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?
And if my thought-dreams could be seen They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.