The lies we tell ourselves in the dark
To give us something to hold onto
Will someday come back to haunt us
But we say them anyway
And once they’re out and in the open
Then we have to face ourselves
And the truth we’ve tried to bury
Stands before us in the light
And our souls lay bare
Facing all we’ve locked away
Someday all will be free
She speaks in riddles
with signs and signals
That no one else can see or hear
Lost in translation
Hunting for solutions
I’ll likely never find
But oh how she calls
And I long to answer
In a language that she understands
Reaching out so many times
I keep cutting myself open
On the jagged edges that surround you
But still I bleed myself dry
Hoping by my sacrifice
That you may find your way free
From the gilded cage
You’ve let yourself be captured in
How foolish must I be
To fight for someone so strongly
Unwilling to stand up for themselves
Too deep in the echos
The shadows and the noise
To see their own way clear
I can light the way
But I can’t drag you along
And every moment spent standing here
Is another I might have spent
Walking in the light
Alongside someone more willing
And able to see the sun
Wrap me in the bandages
And let me find the strength
To walk away and let you go
Down into your darkness
Where I’m not meant to tread
The flashing neon signs will lead
Right off the edge of the road that you travel
(But you’ll follow them anyway)
For that’s what you’ve been told to do
And when you crawl from the wreckage
Trying to find what went wrong on tbe way
You’ll find yourself stuck for an answer
You did exactly what you had been taught
Read all the signals, obeyed all the rules
And all that was promised to lead you to glory
Lead to the bottom of the pile instead
You’ll climb out, dust off, and take a long look
And find nothing to tell you just where you went wrong
The truth is, there’s nothing that you could do better
This path we follow is trial and error
And sometimes it works out and others it won’t
And you won’t know a damn thing ’til you find the end
The illusion begins at first sight
And nothing is ever what it seems
Trying to look beneath the surface
Can sometimes lead to scars and bloodshed
But the only way to find
Something you might be able to count on
Is to dive in headfirst
Mindful of the broken thorns
And hopeful that the bloodletting
Leads to better days
Once the scars have healed
Taunt me with the unobtainable
Dangle that damn carrot already
Build the trap with smoke and mirrors
So I forget what I don’t have
Wrap me in what would never be
And keep me from what’s out there
Reality is a game I just won’t play
Better to lose in fantasy
And surround myself in broken dreams
Of what lies just out of reach
Than to stretch my fingers
Out toward the treasured goal
And fall just short
Save the trying hard
For what would never succeed
And spare the pain of barely losing
So I can lie and blame it on
What I found myself caught up in
Instead of fixing the broken
And getting back up to try again
Here I find myself again
Millions of faces and places to be
But I’m inside my head
Here in this little room
Wals built up so carefully
I couldn’t dream or dare
To step out from the inside
And leave behind what’s always been
For a chance at something else
That will just blow up in my face
Better the devil you know
I think that’s what the old words said
And this chair is so comfy and warm
Comfortable silence surrounds
Cold comfort to the world outside
Nothing more worth searching for
I’ve got it all right here
All that I can count on
But there’s something missing
Something that keeps pulling me
To take that step beyond
And maybe I’ll find it in myself
To break free once again
But not right now
Right now I’ve got nothing left
To push me through these walls
I’ll stay right in this seat
Let the noise wash over
Let life pass me by
I’m safe and warm here
And somehow, right now,
The bare minimum is enough