The life of a writer is scribbled in shaky pen in a lonely corner of the world Right up to the minute that it happens to you – standing inside and looking out You think you have a good idea, then you cross it out and start again – one, two, three… Where does that leave our hero? Standing at the top of an empty page All the places I have been may not be on any map And all the lessons of the past don’t mean a thing to anyone Which side of the truth are you on when everyone is lying? Sometimes I cannot write, nothing comes to mind I only hope that it will pass and I can see my way through to which side of the truth I am on in the end when everyone is lying Some days you realize it just isn’t happening, but what can you do? Walking up the hill in the daylight Everyone want their money, but no one reads what I write There’s no demand for this brand of confusion, why would I go on? Don’t wanna go outside, don’t wanna talk to anyone Don’t wanna look out the window, just wanna find the right words It can’t be this much trouble just tryin’ to say something simple Strange rooms seem to mix and collide - I still don’t wanna go outside aaahhh….., ooooh……, one-two-three, one-two-three… Nobody came to see the show - Nobody cares what tragedy has befallen your protagonist There’s so much noise and clamor - Drowning out the nearly-silent whispering Meaningless and indistinct - Meaningless and indistinct Try to stop yourself from making any bad decisions, made so many bad decisions You’re just trying to make a living - Something has obscured your labours Pouring water on your papers, throwing silence on your voice – Big ideas make no sense to you Stumble in the street and wander sadly by the windows as the sun is hammering the earth All machinery and traffic and the manufactured plastic They will all have meager choices and the starving crowd rejoices Who you wanna be? Who you wanna be? Now who you wanna be? Who do you wanna be? Now you head back home, happy enough to have a cup of tea alone Wondering how anyone can survive, hiding in your imagination It’s after hours, maybe I am still awake I can imagine there was a time when men built towers of steel and vanity I can imagine there was a time before they threw fire into the sky Before they threw fire at the sky I can imagine a time when I had no idea Nobody made any money from misery Nobody made a profit from trickery Only the sound of rain, only the sound of rain You don’t have to keep pretending, we know that you let everybody down (let everybody down, down, down, down) I hope you have your magic eraser, I hope that you can see around the corners If everybody’s feeling is so important, nobody’s feelings really matter So what’s the point of writing? You have sixty seconds to state your case, so many fighting for that chance But you get nothing, better go home now, cross out another day But you get nothing, better go home now, cross out another day You don’t have to keep pretending, we know that you don’t have any secrets to tell Hope you have a round-trip ticket, you are going to find yourself walking along the tracks Hey everybody, just gather together You might be amazed at the twisting of the word Better wake up the neighbors, and ring all their telephones And tell them everything you heard This a man who has nothing to lose, who will risk being laughed at for revealing his dreams He must find a venue where the world has to listen Staged with a spotlight, one solitary being Standing up to the sun like a madman And now he talks to inanimate objects And now he's winding up the clock too much To tell the time and know how long He can't stop trying to talk to you The killer tries to run him down He escapes to an empty building, a theater at the edge of town He looks out at the audience, shadows and trash and empty seats He can hear them whispering and waiting for the big performance Every word that is spoken crashes down across the room Now the props and the lights are changing, the final scene is coming soon And at the end there will be such a fire that will burn up everyone inside the place He steps up to the edge of the stage and strikes a match and you can see his face You can see his eyes are full of smoke, you can see the strange designs You can see his soul as it is carved away by time and tragedy You can see the chaos in his mind Ashes, ashes, all is spoken now All is spoken now, the embers fly into the sky Laughter, laughter, echoes in the night Finally the clock has been set right, been set right I have told my story to anyone who would listen They have turned away from me time and again But the sound of my voice has created a wave that will travel through space where the stars all collide in pools of blue energy When they finally die and draw everything into that point of impossible, being so strange I wonder if the rage and the sadness and the sound of my single voice will be burned up like nothing in the greatness of heaven

look up from your novel, you can see its ten o'clock - you have been reading for some time you like stories about people and you wish them all the best and what if disasters happen, do you have a plan for later stand in the shadows looking down on an imaginary city full of people you created for a play now the fire’s dying out, and soon it will be time for sleep - dream about the people, and shed a tear for their misfortune will they still be there when you wake up, or are the people sleeping too - you're gonna need a big eraser if you want to fix the continuity you think know how they feel - you know what they always say - you can almost tell what's gonna happen to them all they can't find their way back home - one won't ever leave the house - someone isn't feeling very well now don't you worry and stay up so late you know they will take care of themselves if you let them why don't you take a walk over the water and sit for a while and just think about nothing and while you were waiting there you became angry and filled with the urge to just scatter your toys about what is it about these books - when did you collect them all - who wrote all these comedies and what's so funny now? never stop to think about - the ones who loved those characters – and what the fading memories of history will allow every day you introduce different characters - some of them might be like you if you didn't know better some of them think like you think - some of them do things that you wouldn't do I hope you have mercy on all of their souls ‘cause they have no inkling for whom the bell tolls - whom the bell tolls now you sit down with paper and pen and all the ideas that came to you in your sleep who knows what dangers await and who knows what good fortune you might create for them someone plays tricks on them - someone was not very nice to them someone did not approve of their friends - and was that someone you again will you save them from their fate - will you watch them fade away will you give them words to speak - do you think they'll be ok watch the factories built up and torn down - watch the deserts get turned into oceans see how images made into idols might be forgotten in a just a few years it was long ago - I walked among the subjects - hidden by silence - but I was just like them all the fixations - and complications - all the states and nations - just don't have the patience tearing up the contracts and striking down the laws who cares how it ends up - might as well call your friends up- you can destroy each other - for all I care about it I will let it happen- no sense in getting mixed up - no sense trying to fix up - that will surely serve them right that will surely serve them right - oooh that will surely serve them right I never want to have to justify the reason for the guns and the money to pay for them the innocent are always left behind to suffer at the hands of the criminal underground Gonna make you work around the clock and shovel all the money in the back of a private jet Gonna take your house and repossess whatever we can get for whatever is left of it you better not be trying to hide a single penny from the hands of the government bank machine they're gonna find it anyways and when they do, they're gonna come for the rest and be done with it they're gonna count to ten and then they want you out on the lawn with your hands in the zip ties you better swim for land and hope to god you make it to the beach just ahead of the rip tide you had big plans - you got rained out - I made sure of it - I made sure of it - know just the thing for fools like you – it’s just medicine that's what you get who’s next in line - come get your pills - come sign your name - come sign your name - you like this stuff - everyone's the same - they drink it up I don't like you, it’s no surprise - have no idea what I will do - you disappear, nobody cares - nobody knows, no consequence don't raise your hand, I might call on you - you have no clue what I will do - what's that you say – it’s so unfair - when you find out it’s all downhill from here I feel like I am always dreaming and picking up a lot of interference - a drop of water in a pitch-black sky announcing the coming of the rain and when I get to chapter 10, I meet my enemy again - why do I think I know this man – I know these heartless plans why does he take it out on me, he knows I that I mean well - they say that good intentions will pave the road to hell who’s walking in my house – who’s breathing in my ear - I feel I know their names - they're not like all the rest the stories start to blur - the pages start to burn- a crazy man who tried to tell a world that wasn't listening he didn't care he left them there - a puff of smoke and he was gone - I almost thought that he was dead, but he returns in every song a tale of loneliness and fire - it seems so hazy to me now - I cannot find that book again - I seem to have misplaced it seem to have misplaced it - seem to have misplaced it - seem to have misplaced it – I guess I have misplaced it you put out the fire and - walk the hallway to your room - now you put the candle out - everything is quiet and diamonds turn to turpentine - all the liars fall in line - everybody's nobody - don't you wish you never had to live through the - bad times that would never - seem to be over and - cry about your troubles then they tore you down and you - swore that you would punish them - this was not expected they - tore you down to pavement and left you there to figure out - how you might destroy them all – sleep may finally settle a - cross the empty room and now it seems like the – victory of one is – only a tragedy – forced upon another there is something wrong with this whole thing - something doesn't add up to me something is broken somewhere - making a godawful racket - god damn the infernal unknown - the infernal unknown - the infernal unknown always with the bullshit – never makes any sense always try to get the last word – full of such intolerance I will burn through every book - I will rip down every word - no one get one over on my watch - no one gets to tell me anything I will silence you all - take you out of the world – I’ll remove you from history you should listen to yourself – you sound like a petty god – cracking like a ship aground – floundering in heavy fog I will ruin anyone – anyone that I can find – scurry between buildings and try to find a place to hide just one more time – maybe it will be the last only one god can decide – future, present, and the past guess what you ridiculous sad and stupid people of the dust I got bad news I am onto you and your catatonic robotic villainous corkscrew try to fool me with the hat and the cane and the glasses with the x-rays see through try again with the money and the guns and the holes in the bottom of your clown shoe don't worry everything will even up - even if you don't get to see or feel enough even if you still think that you deserve the prize - someday I know that you will realize doesn't take much strength or skill to kill a man - doesn't take much wherewithal to kick the can I have a feeling that there must be something in the book - I see it sitting on the shelf but I don't really want to look I never want to know what really happened to me on the stage that night in the theater and all I wanted was to vanish in the heat of the fire and the smoke like a whisper I never thought that I'd be waking up here in the house in the wilderness I never thought that I'd be writing depositions in the dark like a character witness one day you're sitting in your library - you know the place so well but it's still full of mystery what is this book and did you write this one yourself - somehow you never noticed this one on the shelf my hands are shaky now - I start to wonder how - the story of a shattered man - would seem familiar to me what was I thinking when - I created this disaster - somehow I don't recall - somehow I don't recall one gun one fire one death one life to live is all that’s left – once that one’s gone - you will return to dust one time one day one soul trapped inside a big machine – no afterlife for you to live - no word that you can trust turn the page it seems so damned foolish - he's on fire and then he's floating away you look so surprised to see them all - all the mourners crying at the wake so sad for all of them – too bad it didn’t work out that well tears may fall and never make a sound – like pennies thrown into a wishing well Crazy syncopated riff with chords now the story might make sense - you are a god of this whole world you compose the life and trial - and this one seems to be about you why did you not know this all along - you created your destruction you wrote your life and killed yourself again - now you live here in this empty house all alone in your despair - killing off the characters again you are the ending of this book you wrote - you have brought this fate upon yourself now the tale of the loner with a pen - scribbling in a magic book alone making puppets dance and jump around - you were pulling your own strings you know you figured out your own escape you could have made yourself a king now you're just a lonely destroyer again