Shoelaces (strung too tight).

The walls of my house are no longer my own.
I wonder if it should have taken me this long to realize.
My purpose and calling, sister, lie somewhere down the road.
I am well-fed and I show all a smile, yet the darkness does not escape my eyes.

If you asked me yesterday what I was to do
I’d have you sit down and I’d play you a song.
Yet if you are still a friend to me today,
You’d look in my eyes and know that something is wrong.

It seems I’ve had support in all that I’ve done;
And despite it all I am yet bound to fall.
You can preach all you wish about learning from mistakes,
Will I listen to you on your white horse calling while I’m on the floor miserably crawling?

This plate of plenty I can no longer enjoy.
I feel far from deserving love of this size.
I would love to stand amongst you all and rejoice,
But honey, all the music in the world couldn’t make this darkness flee from from my eyes.

I see a girl standing in the bedroom corner.
She looks familiar, a ghost of romance and young love long ago learned.
I stroll in joy to her bright red corner.
Yet though my arms are open wide, her look’s grown cold and stern.

I take my guitar and play her a song,
But her arms cross together and she stands up steady.
In that moment she tells me how the melody’s grown old.
She smiles weak, says ‘good luck’ and ‘good-bye’, once again before I am ready.

How can you tell me to live in the moment.
Try, oh sister, to smell the roses with your eyes fixed on a faraway prize.
It’s easier said than done, I guarantee it.
Until that prize is mine, oh darlin’, there’ll be darkness in these eyes.