C F C F C F C F C

C                      F               C             F
I have a friend, he's mostly made of pain
C                                 F                    C       F
He wakes up, drives to work and straight back home again
C                     F                 C                   F
He once cut one of my nightmares out of paper
C                                    F           C          F
I thought it was beautiful, I put it on a record cover
G                                         C F
And I tried to tell him that he had a sense
G                                      C F
Of color and composition so magnificent

               F        G                F     G
And he said thank you, please, but your flattery
       F     G    F       G
It is truly not becoming me
      F       G             F           G
Your eyes are poor, you're blind, you see
      F         G         F         G
No beauty ever could have come from me
      C               F
I'm a waste
    C            F
Of breath,
    C        F
 of space,
    C     F
of time

C           F

C                        F               C           F
I knew a woman, she was dignified and true
 C                       F                C           F
Her love for her man was one of her many virtues
 C                      F                  C       F
Until one day she found out that he had lied
  C                                   F                         C          F
And decided the rest of her life from that point on would be a lie
G                                        C    F
She was grateful for everything that had happened
G                                              C F
And she was anxious for all that would come next
     F       G              F     G
But then she wept, what did you expect?
         F      G            F        G
In that big old house with the car she kept
        F       G       F       G
And, "Such is life," she often said
     F       G     F       G
With one day leading to the next
             F     G     F      G
You get a little closer to your death
            F        G              F   G
Which was fine with her, she never got upset
          F       G        F        G
And with all the days she may have left
           F        G     F     G
She would never clean another mess
     F         G       F         G
Or fold his shirts or look her best
           C         F
She was free
    C   F
To waste
C    F
away
C   F
alone
C F
C     F

C              F                C              F
Last night my brother he got drunk and drove
C                          F                    C              F
And this cop pulled him off to the side of the road
C            F                                       C       F
And he said, "Officer, officer, you've got the wrong man
 C                                     F                                  C           F
No, no, I'm a student of medicine, a son of a banker, you don't understand"
G                                                   C    F
The cop said, "No one got hurt, you should be thankful
G                                              C    F
Your carelessness, it is truly something awful
   F       G        F        G
And no, I can't just let you go
     F             G        F      G
even though your father's name is known
      F          G        F         G
Your decisions now are yours alone
      F        G          F         G
You're nothing but a stepping stone
     C        F
On a path
C      F
To debt,
C        F
 to loss
 C       F
to shame

C        F

      C                          F                C              F
The last few months I've been living with this couple
      C                            F                C              F
Yeah, you know the kind who buy everything in doubles
C              F                C              F
Yeah, they fit together like a puzzle

C                F          C              F
I love their love, and I am thankful
G                                                  C              F
That someone actually received the prize that was promised
G                               C              F
By all those fairy tales that drugged us
      F      G         F       G
And still do me, I'm sick, lonely
     F      G         F       G
No laurel tree, just green envy
          F             F       G
Will my number come up eventually?
      F      G            F    G
Like love's some kind of lottery
           F           G         F       G
Where you scratch and see what's underneath
     C     F
It's sorry,
         C      F
just one cherry
          C      F
I'll play again

    C      F
get lucky

C    F

C                  F                    C              F
So now I hang out down by the train's depot
             C              F                C              F
No, I don't ride, I just sit and watch the people there
C                      F            C       F
They remind me of windup cars in motion
              C                    F                                C                        F
The way they spin and turn and jockey (or jerk each other off) for positions
G                                          C                      F
And I want to scream out that it all is nonsense
G                                                    C            F
And their life's one track and can't they see it's pointless?
          F      G           F     G
But just then my knees give under me
    F           G      F       G
My head feels weak and suddenly
       F       G            F        G
It's clear to see it's not them but me
       F              G
Who's lost my self-identity
        F                  G
And I hide behind these books I read
         F            G
While scribbling my poetry
      F                G
Like art could save a wretch like me
          F         G
With some ideal ideology
      F                G
That no one could hope to achieve
      F        G                   F      G
And I'm never real, it's just a sketch of me
      F     G       F       G            F
And everything I've made is trite and cheap
      C      F
And a waste
    C       F
Of paint
     C      F
of tape
     C      F
of time

C    F
C    F

      C             F                C              F
So I park my car down by the cathedral
              C             F          C              F
Where the floodlights point up at the steeples
C                 F                    C         F
Choir practice is filling up with people
C                F                  C            F
I hear the sound escaping as an echo
C                  F               C           F
Sloping off the ceiling at an angle
C               F                        C         F
When the voices blend they sound like angels
C                    F                   C     F
I hope there's some room still in the middle

G                                         C    F
But when I lift my voice up now to reach them
G                                C           F
The range is too high way up in heaven
     F        G      F           G
So I hold my tongue, forget the song
F        G      F           G
Tie my shoes, start walking off
    F        G        F      G
And try to just keep moving on
         F      G          F       G
With my broken heart and my absent God
       F        G           F      G
And I have no faith and it's all I want
       C   F
to be loved,
       C   F
and to love
     C      F
and believe
       C    F
In my soul
      C        F     C      F       C   F     C  F
in my sooooooo oh oh ooooh  oh oh  ooooul

      C        F     C      F     C   F     C  F
in my sooooooo oh oh ooooh  oh oh  ooooul