Lyrics Song of the Stoic - Suzanne Vega

Song of the Stoic

I am a man
I’ve been working all my days
This is my accounting
Of my means and of my ways
More years are behind me now
Than years that are ahead
Looking back I feel
This is my story to be said
I faced my father down
Inside the hallway of our home
18 years of pain
Upon my body to the bone
Demons lived inside of him
They forced him to the act
The layers of the bruises
To my body was the fact
Ooooh ooooh
I grew and went in to the world
I learned to know its code
Of spoken and unspoken
And I learned to love the road
I shoulder every burden
A mule with a heavy pack
Every coin I earn’s another
Knot within my back
Ecstasy and pleasure come
At much too great a cost
I keep myself upon the earth
But measure what I’ve lost
Winged things they brush against me
Never mine to hold
I keep my eyes upon the ground
And carry on as old
Ooooh ooooh
I knew a woman
She had the gifted touch
Her hands were wise with healing
And with wonder and all such
As the fates would have it
Each to others we are wed
Confine ourselves to friendship
We stay out of the bed
Now I turn around to face
The spectre of my age
My soul it fights my body
Like a bird will fight its cage
I see that last horizon
I hope it brings me peace
I look forward to the day
At last my body knows release
Ooooh ooooh
Ooooh ooooh