How useless it is to watch the slow whirl of the clock
It's useless, too, to answer that loud, echoing knock
You can just sit 'n' stare until your time finally runs out
That will reflect very well on what you were always about
Surveying life from a corner or from the back of the bus
Were you too scared or too proud to join the rest of us
Inside, inside, inside, playing games of no real consequence
Sadly, or insidiously, you thought it was at our expense
I see you sitting there now, like yesterday and every before
Skin a haunting white, the knob glowing pristine on the door
I know you left the room, even prisoners have a need to eat
Only you would welcome those chains clamped to your feet
Silhouetted within silence and shrouded away from faces
No one near to hear you hide or to pick up any taint traces
The mountain you are becoming is getting harder to climb
I see the object of your actions, even you cannot stop time
Leave pieces of inspiration around for everyone to glimpse
Tell them how you once danced with the muse and her imps
See their faces go pale and the smile that slithers to your lips
I wait and wait until, from the cage, a single, stealth tear slips
You buried your soul with your dreams and lost ambitions
This agreement you signed, were these truly your conditions
The fine print evaporates and the termites are crawling away
A blank, ivory void screams white-light at your lump of gray
I've seen you catatonic before but never saw you this still
I fear you will be next as the ink dries and cracks on the quill
Hands form the casket cross as you stare at mumbling walls
They once asked where you've gone, and heard nothing at all
The ghost tower keeper's stolen your wings and taken flight
You bewailed "In Us Confide" all through dapple-gray nights
Watching the skies for either their return or your piece of mind
In the stone of the tower you etch a message no one shall find
Once you rambled on about some trip taken on the dream train
I remember you said something about not coming back again
Was it really you who rode to the end on those dead-end rails
I think you tell it to capture the pity of others, and it never fails
Labor all you want to play your cards right, it doesn't matter
Even if you play them perfectly you still become fatter and fatter
These chances you are facing, what are the odds they're worth it
You belong right where you are; the trouble is you face up to it
The dolorous line between us is limping closer to the edge
It was drawn by your hand and pounded down by a sledge
You can keep your distance and soon will arrive its windfall
Winnowed will be pretense and down will come the stone-wall
Who will hear your caterwaul after the metallic echo of the gate
Even the iron walls crumble in escape after figurin' out their fate
As lone spectator you sit, your last chance distant and concealed
At last, to transpierced eyes, you're now unsheathed and revealed...
