| You were a song I couldn’t sing
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| Caught like a bear by the bees
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| With its hand in a hive
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| Who complains of the sting
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| When I’m lucky I got out alive!
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| A life at best left half-behind
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| The taste of the honey
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| Still sweet on my tongue
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| And I’d run (Lord knows I’ve tried)
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| But there’s no place on Earth
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| I can hide from the wrong I’ve done
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| Then I saw a mountain and I saw a city
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| (I was once the wine)
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| Steadily sinking but suspiciously calm
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| (I was once the wine)
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| It wasn’t an end, it wasn’t a beginning
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| (I was once the wine)
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| But a ceaseless stumbling on
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| (And you were the wine glass)
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| There, strapped like a watch on my wrist
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| (I was once alive)
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| That’s finished with gold but can’t tell time
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| (I was once alive)
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| Was all or what little pleasure exists
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| (I was once alive)
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| Seductively sold and uselessly mine
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| (When you held me)
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| Our horse was fast and first from the gate
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| With the lead of a length at the sound of the gun
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| And the last of our cash laid down to fate (at 17 to 1)
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| But by the final stretch in the rear of the pack
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| That nag limping bad in the back
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| We reluctantly gave all the money we’d saved
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| A fifth to the commonwealth and the rest to the track!
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| Then I saw a forest grow in the city
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| (I was once the wine)
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| And a driftwood wall of birdhouse gourds
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| (I was once the wine)
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| And I’m still waiting to meet a girl like my mom
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| (I was once the wine)
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| (who's closer to my age)
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| (I was once the wine)
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| The true light of my eyes is a Pearl
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| (I was once alive)
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| Equally emptied to equally shine
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| (I was once alive)
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| And all or what little joy in the world
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| (I was once alive)
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| Seemed suddenly simple and endlessly mine
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| (When you held me)
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| I was once the wine
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| I was once the wine
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| I was once the wine
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| And you were the wineglass
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| I was once alive
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| I was once alive
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| I was once alive
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| When you held me
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| But God became the glass
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| All things left are emptiness
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| Oh, little girl…
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| You’re just a little girl
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| If you look out and see a trace
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| Of a dark bed was once my face
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| In the clarity of such grace
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| Forget all about me |