My home lies in a distant world
Unknown to me
My consciousness takes me there
In times of despair

Where my family is always laughing
And the cook’s always cooking
The birds always singing
And the books always, well, booking

My room lies in a separate part of the house
Hidden away from sight and sound
My bed, the storehouse of my dreams
My palace of solitude

It’s there where I think
It’s there where I dream
It’s there where I write
There where I eat ice cream

But then they came
And placed clocks inside my room
I asked what they were for
“To tell you the time, birdbrain.”

Why would anyone in their right minds
Want to know the time?
I know when I’m hungry
That’s the time I’m hungry
I know when I’m sleepy
That’s the time I’m sleepy

What do I need clocks for?
So I threw the clock out

But they came again
With a bigger clock this time
The kind which doesn’t fit in my window sill
So I gave up
And thought to myself,
“Well, I don’t need it. If it’s there,
Let it be.”

And so it was
The clock kept ticking
Tick tock tick tock
Tick tock tick tock
Tick tock tick tock
Tick tock tick ******* tock

Until the noise of the hand
Was written in my brain
In every song I sung
Every thought I thunk
I couldn’t make the noise go away

It was taking over my life
Telling me what we do
When to eat and when to sleep
And when to do the other stuff that I do

So I broke the clock
And thought it was over
But the world wouldn’t give up
They just couldn’t leave me alone
They came one after another
And put clocks in my room

Every shape, every size
Wristwatches, wall clocks
They even got me
A grandfather’s clock
Until every space inside my fortress of solitude
Was filled with tiny, ticking machines
And every cell in my mind
Became just like theirs

Now I’m one of them
And wear a watch wherever I go
I see the time before going out
I see the time when I’ve to get home

I know what I’ve become
I’m scared of what’s next
I’m scared of the time
I’ll have to put clocks
In the room of a little boy
Who’ll never be the same again.