| «The audience was large and brilliant. |
| Upon my weary heart was showered smiles,
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| plaudits, and flowers, but beyond them, I saw thorns and troubles innumerable.
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| It was a pretty good GPA
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| We got a couple of good grades
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| And it sounded like a pretty good seven inch
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| And winter didn’t seem so cold
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| And I had a smile for everyone I know
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| I was starting to get comfortable in the place that I’m in
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| And it used to not mean anything
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| It used to not mean anything
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| It used to not mean anything, but it really means nothing now
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| Nothing means anything anymore
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| Everything is less than zero
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| And I know it won’t do much good
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| Getting drunk and sad and singing
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| But I’m at the end of my rope
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| And I feel like swinging
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| It was an unflattering photograph
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| And people saw it all over town
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| Hanging up on the wall above the urinal
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| Hear the man with the notepad say
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| «Oh, they’re funny, but they drink too much»
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| «Don't be surprised if they don’t amount to nothing at all»
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| We were talking about giving up
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| We were talking about lying down
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| We were talking about tying off
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| Wasn’t it supposed to mean something now?
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| Let them see you struggle and they’re going to tear you apart
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| You ain’t never been no virgin, kid, you were fucked from the start
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| They’re all going to be laughing at you
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| You can’t make it on merit, not on merit and merit alone
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| Dan McGee tried to tell me, «There ain’t no more Rolling Stones»
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| They’re all going to be laughing at you
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| I’ve been called out, cuckolded, castrated, but I survived
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| I am covered in urine and excrement but I’m alive
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| And there’s a white flag in my pocket never to be unfurled
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| Though with their hands 'round my ankles, they bring me down for another swirl
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| And they tell me, «Take it easy buddy, it’s not the end of the world!»
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| «And there and then and bathed by the rising sun
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| My son in his grave, in his rude-dug grave I deposited
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| Ending my vigil strange with that, vigil of night and battle-field dim
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| Vigil for boy of responding kisses, (never again on earth responding)
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| Vigil for comrade swiftly slain, vigil I never forget, how as day brighten’d
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| I rose from the chill ground and folded my soldier well in his blanket
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| And buried him where he fell.» |