Step up to the camera and give us a smile
You are welcome to stay, well, at least for a while
Just button up, dress down, you’re one of the elite
But by winter, your anthem rings so bittersweet
To make you so sickeningly famous
Bore fine print you prayed you could ignore
From debts you never dreamt of owing
There was nowhere to run, collections was knocking at your door
Seems what I’ve spoken to writers whose words did adore, was just
Ink unto what pages have signed me up for
I’m passing the lake, strange shapes laugh
Their crooked jeers scratch the sour roof of the mouth in my ears
It’s starved, and uprooted like the grass in the yard
Dog neighbor screams as if to say I’m better off that way
Petulant son, we always loved you
But we don’t know you anymore
To make me so sickeningly famous
Bore fine print I prayed I could ignore
From debts I never dreamt of owing
There was nowhere to run, collections was knocking at the door
Head for the hills, holes I’ve dug, they’re so riddled with pain, and when
I try to bury what clouds already witnessed, I just sit in the rain
And oh, don’t you love how it pours, the way it washes over everything
Their design was to put me away down below with my beautiful surrender
Like a fog from a mirror, they’ve gone
I admit each and every single wrong
Please forgive everything I have done
Every bitter note and sour song I’ve sung
Well, I never, again, ever
Will commit such abuse on another
I’ll be damned if I let myself tear us apart
Let’s reach up, and reach out to each other
I can’t belong to a system of lies
Here to steal us away, well I dare them to try
As we make our escape, I can still hear their cries
While our need to exploit leads us oft to deceive
We remain unrepentant as long as we believe
That when melodies ring, it is we who are singing
The sound that can clean any conscience