Well the animals laugh    From the dark of the wilderness    A baby cries hard    In an apartment complex       As I pass in a car    Buried under the influence    The cities driving me out    of my mind       I've seen a child he's caught    In the sad trap of gravity    He falls from the lowest    Branch of the apple tree       And lands in the grass    And weeps for his dignity    Next time he will not aim so high    Yeah, next time neither will I       Now, a mother takes loans out    Sends her kids off to colleges    Her family's reduced    To names on a shopping list       While a coroner kneels    Beneath the great wooden crucifix    He knows there’s worse things than being    Alone.       And so I’ve learned to retreat    At the first sign of danger    I mean, why wait around if    It’s just to surrender       And ambition I’ve found    Can lead only to failure    I do not read the reviews    No I am not singing for you    [Woo]       Well I stood droppin' a coin    Into the pit of a well    And I would throw my whole billfold    If I thought it would help       With all these wishes I make    I should buy something real    At least a telephone    Call home       Well my teachers they built    This retaining wall of memory    All those multiple choices    I answered so quickly       And got my grades back    And forgot just as easily    But at least I got an A    And so I don’t have them to blame       Well I should stop pointing fingers    Reserve my judgment    Of all those public action figures    And cowboy presidents    So loud behind the bull-horns    So proud they can’t admit    When they’ve made a mistake       While poison ink spews    From a speech writers pen    He knows he don’t have to say it    So it don't bother him       Honesty accuracy    It’s just popular opinion    And the approval ratings high    And so someone’s gonna die       Well ABC NBC CBS bullshit    They give us fact or fiction    I guess an even split    And each new act of war's tonight's entertainment    We're still the pawns in their game       As they take eye for an eye    Until no one can see    We must stumble blindly forward    Repeating history       Well I guess we all fit into that slogan    On your fast food marquee    Red blooded white skinned and oh the blues    Oh and the blues I got the blues that’s me       Well I awoke in relief    My sheets and tubes were all tangled    Weak from whiskey and pills    In a Chicago hospital       And my father was there    In a chair by the window    Starin’ so far away    I tried talking just whispered    So sorry so selfish    He stopped me and said    Child, I love you regardless    There nothing you could do    That would ever change this    I’m not angry, it happens    But you just can’t do it again       And so now I try to keep up    I been exchanging my currency    While a million objects    Pass though my periphery    Now I’m rubbin' my eyes    'Cause they're starting to bother me    I been staring too long at the screen       But where was it when I first heard    That sweet sound of humility    It came to my ears in the    Goddamned loveliest melody       How grateful I was then    To be part of the mystery    To love and to be loved    Lets just hope that is enough