This Broken Step

This Broken Step

I use to expect things to be just right
But I don't do that much no more
I use to demand things fall in line for me
And if not well then there's the door
I use to look down at the things I had
With that smirk I was famous for
But I sure ain't that reckless anymore

Too many people found me dependable
For their addictions and their sins
Like the chalk marks at a crime scene
Needs a victim to lay within
But they were all just as expendable
And I spent them just as fast
I never thought that anyone would last

I never knew just what I was
Till I wasn't who I am
I never cried like a little boy
Till I felt the pain of the little man
Of all the so called "lessons learned"
Pressed upon me by fools and friends
It's that the lights just don't go out fast enough in the end

It seems I hurt everyone I love
I fail a little more every day
But I should win sometimes in someone's eyes
At least that's what they say
A wounded creature in the second act
With a story to tell of his own
Is better off rehearsing alone

I guess I been through a little more than most
Of silver cups and silver spoons
Of hopes and dreams and ill laid schemes
Of dog day afternoons
So many years have missing tears
I need a fountain to tell the time
A broken step in an empty chorus line

Across a sky of jellied fire
Her spirit's dawning through
From a heart strung bow and pinioned wings
An arrow swift and true
And it might sound so typical
Of dramatic poetry
But this is all that there is left for me...