Darkness at the break of noon
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Shadows even the silver spoon
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The handmade blade, the child's balloon
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Eclipses both the sun and moon
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To understand you know too soon
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There is no sense in trying.
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Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
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Suicide remarks are torn
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From the fools gold mouthpiece
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The hollow horn plays wasted words
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Proved to warn
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That he not busy being born
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Is busy dying.
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Temptation's page flies out the door
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You follow, find yourself at war
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Watch waterfalls of pity roar
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You feel to moan but unlike before
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You discover
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That you'd just be
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One more person crying.
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So don't fear if you hear
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A foreign sound to you ear
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It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.
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As some warn victory, some downfall
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Private reasons great or small
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Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
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To make all that should be killed to crawl
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While others say don't hate nothing at all
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Except hatred.
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Disillusioned words like bullets bark
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As human gods aim for their marks
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Made everything from toy guns that sparks
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To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
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It's easy to see without looking too far
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That not much
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Is really sacred.
|
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While preachers preach of evil fates
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Teachers teach that knowledge waits
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Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
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Goodness hides behind its gates
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But even the President of the United States
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Sometimes must have
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To stand naked.
|
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An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
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It's only people's games that you got to dodge
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And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.
|
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Advertising signs that con you
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Into thinking you're the one
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That can do what's never been done
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That can win what's never been won
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Meantime life outside goes on
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All around you.
|
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You loose yourself, you reappear
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You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
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Alone you stand without nobody near
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When a trembling distant voice, unclear
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Startles your sleeping ears to hear
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That somebody thinks
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They really found you.
|
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A question in your nerves is lit
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Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
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Insure you not to quit
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To keep it in your mind and not forget
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That it is not he or she or them or it
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That you belong to.
|
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Although the masters make the rules
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For the wise men and the fools
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I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.
|
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For them that must obey authority
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That they do not respect in any degree
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Who despite their jobs, their destinies
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Speak jealously of them that are free
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Cultivate their flowers to be
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Nothing more than something
|
They invest in.
|
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While some on principles baptized
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To strict party platforms ties
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Social clubs in drag disguise
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Outsiders they can freely criticize
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Tell nothing except who to idolize
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And then say God Bless him.
|
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While one who sings with his tongue on fire
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Gargles in the rat race choir
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Bent out of shape from society's pliers
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Cares not to come up any higher
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But rather get you down in the hole
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That he's in.
|
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But I mean no harm nor put fault
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On anyone that lives in a vault
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But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.
|
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Old lady judges, watch people in pairs
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Limited in sex, they dare
|
To push fake morals, insult and stare
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While money doesn't talk, it swears
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Obscenity, who really cares
|
Propaganda, all is phony.
|
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While them that defend what they cannot see
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With a killer's pride, security
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It blows the minds most bitterly
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For them that think death's honesty
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Won't fall upon them naturally
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Life sometimes
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Must get lonely.
|
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My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
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False gods, I scuff
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At pettiness which plays so rough
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Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
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Kick my legs to crash it off
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Say okay, I have had enough
|
What else can you show me ?
|
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And if my thought-dreams could been seen
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They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
|
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.
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|
-----------------
|
It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
|
| Bob Dylan |
