The Paradox Of Freedom

People respect your thoughts most tenderly
Though they can't understand, to any degree
And sing their songs most bitterly
Of a life where they think they'll be free
Didn't anyone tell them, or don't they see
That's just not the way things happen

A friend can tell you, or maybe inform
That "the way you live is outside the norm
And it's not the way, not proper form"
These words can leave you so very torn
Feeling like a baby that's just been born
Isn't that considered trauma?

The pope and his jargon, quite unclear
To those outside, and those who fear
To seek a path that's swept and clear
The world's ways, and its sneer
But you don't give in, to its leer
And maybe that's just the problem?

The king sits alone in a castle tall
With all his servants at his beckon call
He doesn't understand, not at all
Why people are afraid to stall
When they talk of problems big and small
Outisde his perception, people fear him

Wealthy musicians on a stadium's stage
Hears that they are all the rage
Attracting people of any age
Loved by dogs, who die of mange
But like the fact they're in their range
We just start to lose our focus

Investment bankers in their suits and ties
Buy stocks and bonds and lies
Find it's easier to criticize
Until death takes them by surprise
Since it wasn't advertised
It took him this long to realize
That you can't predict the future

Children laugh and play and grin
Because they know they have no sin
And can't worry, try or win
Take a number, standing in
A factory that turns them in-
To something to be branded

A single man who lives alone
Is beaten and taken from his home
Called a perv who rapes his phone
Pleads his case to a microphone
Claims no fault, no fault of his own
Knows his reputation is exterminated,
Even if he's innocent

All these people, friends, and talking-heads
Cannot tell you what to dread
Whether it is hair that's red
Being alone, when you're dead
Family finding your stash of meds
Doesn't this compound the problem?

A prisoner locked inside his cell
With no choice, none he can tell
Realizes that's the definition of hell
Just shrugs and sighs "oh well
For me that's just the way it fell
No one really has it any better"