I have spent 17 years and have yet to
live a day
I got a Pappa who loves me but won’t give three words to say
I am the marionette with my strings left twisted
I’m the tree with a kite and the kid who can’t reach it
I’m the straight A student who likes to get high
I’m the scarlet letter sewn inside the thigh
I’m the scholar swapping stickers on the Rubix cube
I’m the city Alexandria burnt to the ruin
I’m the second gear at 10,000 r.p.m.
I’m the child running naked with napalm
I’m the nipple of the mother with the milk gone sour
I’m the father of Russia drunk on the power
I’m the ugly prostitute who can not break change
I’m the black man strung up in a tree left to hang
I am a dead man
Sucking on the glass looking in
I wish I was dead but I am the kid pulling from the station
Across the nation to be paraded
Segregated, set to rest in Arlington
Where my Uncle Sol sends me down
I’m going down
My love
I never got to tell my lady that I loved her
I never got to confess
Never to taste the breast
To push deep inside for the moment of your rise
Because when I died I forsook your life
And now I will throw myself at you
And I don’t even know your name, nor do I even want to
And I’m going to come on and dance with you
I’m going to feel no shame, only the way you move now
I’m going to shake it when you shiver
I’m going to take from your mouth the liquor
Liquor
This is the time that we’ve got alive
Three and a half minutes of my life
Down comes the guitar up comes the lights
I am alive
I am a dead man
I am a dead man
Sucking on the glass looking in
I wish I was dead but I am the kid pulling from the station
Across the nation to be paraded
Segregated, set to rest in Arlington
Where my Uncle Sol sends me down
I’m going down
I’m gong down
I’m going down
My love
