If this atmosphere is casual
She is stark-naked in the aftermath
This pain is ever so gradual
Slippery slopes on a primrose path

She mails envelopes to Cloud 9
Always marked "return to sender"
Her parade is just an empty line, but
While skin is tough, the heart is tender

The Ferris wheel is broken down
But she prefers them stationary
Isolation chokes in this abandoned town
But breathing has now become secondary

She leaves her high heels on the carousel
Remembering every last heart she's severed
She glides past the carnival like a gazelle
And barefooted, skips into forever

If I had been around in '41
I feel I would have mattered more
Made a handful less mistakes
And fought for lives on foreign shores

I would have championed for freedoms
For colors beyond my own skin
To speak and worship freely
To be free from the fears within

I would watch my innocence crumble
At Bette Davis and those starlit eyes
How Rita Hayworth would corrupt me
With legs made to victimize

The day I'd enlist to serve my country
How scared my mother would be
Sitting in her morning chair all evening
Pretending there were no tears to see

Maybe my father would actually notice
A young man that needed his time
A boy that needed a little shove
To dream bigger than the painted lines

I would have worked til' my fingers bled
To see Joltin' Joe hit safe in 56
To witness the magic of Beantown
And Teddy Ballgame getting in his licks

I can only imagine my heartbeat
Holding her hand in the freezing rain
Knowing tomorrow, I'd be off to Hell
Knowing I may never see her face again

I would've taken the A train with her
Just because Ella and Duke told us to
Danced her up and down Sugar Hill
Til' there was only one thing left to do

We would've driven a coupe by starlight
Til' we were running only on dreams
Break into a farm at the edge of town
And lay silent til' roosters screamed

I would have left my fedora in the backseat
Kissed her lips and swallowed my doubt
Waved from a train headed for Carolina
Feeling knots I'd only read about

My father would read between the lines
To find a comfortable place to exist
His words were veiled by a velvet cloak
Understatements wrapped neatly in their over-thinking

He would wince in pain as sharp gravel
Would impale his cold calloused feet
The road was unenviable in its condition
Yet he never left the discomfort of the ground

He had no proclivity to shepherd my path
He would let me stumble and crash over my own roots
So I took my time and I kept my distance
For his battered body was foreign to my eyes

He would drift out of sight, out of mind
But out of heart was a different story
As all the shoal and sand settled down around him
He remained governed by a far different wave

Somewhere along this path
They dropped you
Perhaps not on your delicate head
But they dropped you
Into a den of lions
Into bitter, barren, wasteland
Into a marsh of crocodiles
Into misleading quicksand

Princess, this is not the world
This is suffering
These are not the acts of love
These vultures are circling

Inexplicably, they brought you here
But conveniently don't give a ****
They sing songs of worn out excuses
Yet sacrifice their little lamb
But you are more than wool
You are more than mere circumstance
The gifts you have been granted
Should be far from piteous romance

Princess, take off your tiara
And set sail for superstition
Cause the only road they paved for you
Is yellow bricks to perdition

It's funny how I turn a corner
The same way I turn a page
At breakneck speeds
Where the signs, like words, are all a blur

This place is a foreign land
But my blisters are now my passport
I ask only that you stand aside
And let me face it on my own

It's as scathing as a bitter stare
But I will endure this endless reproach  
I ask only that you stand aside
And remember me for how I was before

I will court the most beautiful woman
I will sail the most enchanted sea
I will dangle on the edge of greatness
Plummeting to the depths of my destiny

I will not die whimpering in the night
I'll not creep tepidly into the morn
I will not shatter the illusion of a rose
Not even to escape the thorn

I will carry her fantasies upon my lips
I will strip her naked of her fears
I will bite the hand that feeds my appetite
To make her heart beat through all the tears

I will not evaporate like dew in the fields
I'll not shame myself into ascension
I will not carve my name into granite finales
Just to become her honorable mention

In one hand, I hold forgiveness
In the other, I hold deceit
I weigh each and every reason
To repay you with one instead of another
But I am merely human
And this scarcely beating heart
Has surpassed limits on its misuse
So I turn on the water
And wash my hands of them both