The gods are fickle and cruel...
They often take more than they give...
This life is pain for mortal fools
Fighting just to simply live

Gotta be careful, you might just get all the things you may want
If you're wishing on a shooting star, you will always catch the brunt
Of the tidal wave of karma and the things that you may owe
Stealing fire and ambrosia,
there's a cost that you should know

So my brothers and my sisters
Careful what you pray to gain
Because the sun that's shining on you will soon hide behind the rain
Heaven smiles upon the sinner and it scoffs at saints until
You find yourself in shackles,
We all have to pay the bill

...

So they say a weight is lifted when you take the time to cry,
But it leaves me feeling sifted and these tears will never buy
Not a single ounce of peace or give back anything you lose;
Stave off even tiny demons, even though we're free to choose

After crying, now I'm laughing with the gods at plans I've made,
For the things I sought to heal me were the things that dragged the blade
'crost the wounds I thought were healing, but now running crimson red,
Scars like constellations turn to bloody chasms in their stead

Now the laughter fades again to thoughts of sadness and remorse
At the hurdles and the valleys I have conquered on this course
How I vaulted and I wandered through them all to get this far
But us fighting all this darkness is the sum of who we are

In the end we only have ourself as ally and as foe,
And when we try like mad to run from it there's nowhere we can go
There's a constant weight to knowing there's a warning you must heed,
That the world's idea of happiness is "take more than you need"

The things I know...that I wish I hadn't learned
I stood fast and wouldn't budge
But the Earth already turned
Whether sage or madman it can be so very hard to tell
Mostly what they choose to whisper and the things they choose to yell

Like a cancer eating everything starts from a single cell,
Is the concept there's a heaven when I live, myself, in hell
Silver linings tend to get me by, but that's just not enough
But a fool as always I still seek a diamond in the rough

Just a glimmer in the darkness comes before the morning light
I refuse to say there's nothing to be gained for this foul plight
Maybe tears are not the currency, and blood it has no worth
Perhaps, I think, in carnage somewhere there will be new birth

Sad and lonely is the head that lays somberly beneath the crown
While I'm thrashing, treading water when I'd rather fuckin drown
If you only knew how heavy things can get when breaking rules
Like a jester all they see is not the poet but the fool

Breathe the poison smoke that comes up seeping through the floors
You can't open any windows
You can't even see the doors
There is something that's worth saying about hearing from your God
But those doors always stay open
And you become a lightning rod

Fly too high into the sun, feathers fixed with wax to arm
You can't cry foul just like Icarus
T'was you who caused your harm
Heed this warning all my people
Do not tread where angels go
For walking in their shadows
Are the demons we all know

Woe unto those who may choose wrongly, not to heed my calls
For the tower built to heaven
Will entomb you when it falls
You can't run away from what you
Ask the gods to give in prayers
And I promise everyone will see you're putting on these airs
© David Hafley