They'll Kill You

Resolution for new year 2012
You would save till you made the carousel
And you'd be dumping all you hoarded 'cause they
Didn't mean more than a bunch of props on stage
You might even find some new ones after
Jetting off to Stockholm via Adelaide

Where you'd rearrange your past
To merge with each new twist that came
You'd touch down, then you'd shut down
Then leave before you'd stayed
Soothed only by a hope that the world
Wouldn't cope without you long
But all plans are just on hold I'm told
Until your afterglow is gone

Everybody shunts out front and waits there on the street
Like some postscript might ensure the whole thing don't repeat
Give me back my upper hand
Give me back my second chance
Give me back my evil streak
Then guarantee it stays with me

Everything you did just kept you buoyed
And everywhere you wandered was a substitute, a decoy
Overdressed, overdrawn
Volunteering last night's footprint on your face
You knew you were trespassing 'cause you lied about your age
To anybody that would hear you out
While all your smoke screens leaned from range and drained their way south
This birdhouse migrates too
And I don't think you'll ever find your way out of it now

Was running away more a punishment
Than being hitched to the cart?
Was it you that cracked my front door oh so softly in the dark?
I've been sleeping most nights
Stone cold like the shoal that you hit and sunk
But you were here, signed and sealed
Just as real as any air left in your lungs
But you weren't fooling anyone, though some might say
Your trail's as hard to read as any snake's
I knew you last and least on Earth
But no one outsmarts fate by making all that she made worse