TOIL AND TROUBLE

by Nevada Kerr


Why are you so ordinary
Why are you so dull
There's always been a better way
Can't you get it through your skull

A better way to think and feel
A better way to be
The way you deal is so unreal
You're so unkind to me

You barricade your heart and mind
Behind the factory walls
If ever I attempt to climb
You insist that duty calls

Aren't you sick and tired
Of being sad and bound
Tied down like your mother
Longing to leave town

Caution is a quarantine
A beacon for the mad
A death camp for the self-esteem
You never really had

In your refuge
Under lock and key
Love and hope decay
But you're prepared to pay the price
And throw the dearest things away

In the crackling inertia
Of this lonely refrain
An eerie dreary static
Is jamming your brain

Nothing interferes
But the noise of the rain
Yesterday was passionless
Today's the same

Circumscribed, mummified
Dwelling on the past
In a humdrum wooden cubicle
Going nowhere fast

Slowly smothered
By each meaningless task
You dream of holiday vacations
That were never meant to last


Written by © Raven Drake
December 10, 2006.

Created: January 2007 © Paul Kinder

Last Updated: 11/1/07