The bell rings . . .
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It's a decade past my decadence
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My beast wears rings and he's waiting
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In the shadows of my hesitations, my silent
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Hesitations . . . Each image is so clear;
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It seems I have no hands
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The gestures of the air confuse all my demands
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And the beast hears the bell; he comes
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Out of the shadows. He rips apart the shadows . . .
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And he says:
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"This is work and not play"
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And he says:
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"There's always more than one way . . .
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This is work not play"
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Refrain:
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I see the ghosts of my childhood . . .
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Dressed in blue, they trail me in the night
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They drive these cars with real upholstery
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They trail me until . . . here comes the night
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She was standing, standing on the balcony
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Her black, black eyes folded over her eyelids
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Like sheets on motel beds . . .
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She must be eatin' reds
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This place is filled with mirrors
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It echoes what she said
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And she said:
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"I need a judgement day"And she said:
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"I know there's more than one way,
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But I want my judgement day . . ."
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Repeat Refrain
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To sleep without dreams
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So distant from the mirror
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Imitating clarity, disguising
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All the terror . . . I heard a thousand bells
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From a thousand old cathedrals
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They rang . . . I haven't heard them since
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A decade past my decadence
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The beast hears the bell
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I'm cursed to be a singer
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A singer of the flames
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A thinker of a fire
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And a son without a name
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-----------------
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Work, Not Play
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Jim Carroll |