| Darkness at the break of noon |
| Shadows even the silver spoon |
| The handmade blade, the child’s balloon |
| Eclipses both the sun and moon |
| To understand you know too soon there is no sense in trying |
| Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn |
| Suicide remarks are torn |
| From the fool’s gold mouthpiece, the hollow horn |
| Plays wasted words, proves to warn |
| That he not busy being born is busy dying |
| Temptation’s page flies out the door |
| You follow, find yourself at war |
| Watch waterfalls of pity roar |
| You feel to moan but unlike before |
| You discover that you’d just be one more person crying |
| So don’t fear if you hear |
| A foreign sound to your ear |
| It’s alright, Ma |
| I’m only sighing |
| As some warn victory, some downfall |
| Private reasons great or small |
| Can be seen in the eyes of those that call |
| To make all that should be killed to crawl |
| While others say don’t hate nothing at all, except hatred |
| Disillusioned words like bullets bark |
| As human gods aim for their mark |
| Make everything from toy guns that spark |
| To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark |
| It’s easy to see without looking too far that not much is really sacred |
| While preachers preach of evil fates |
| Teachers teach that knowledge waits |
| Can lead to hundred dollar plates |
| Goodness hides behind its gates |
| But even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked |
| And though the rules of the road have been lodged |
| It’s only people’s games that you got to dodge |
| And it’s alright, Ma |
| I can make it |
| Advertising signs that con |
| You into thinking you’re the one |
| That can do what’s never been done |
| That can win what’s never been won |
| Meantime, life outside goes on all around you |
| You lose yourself, you reappear |
| You suddenly find you got nothing to fear |
| Alone you stand with nobody near |
| When a trembling distant voice unclear |
| Startles your sleeping ears to hear that somebody thinks they really found you |
| A question in your nerves is lit |
| Yet you know there is no answer fit |
| To satisfy, insure you not to quit |
| To keep it in your mind and not forget |
| That it is not he or she or them or it that you belong to |
| But though the masters make the rules |
| For the wise men and the fools |
| I got nothing, Ma |
| To live up to |
| Old lady judges watch people in pairs |
| Limited in sex, they dare |
| To push fake morals, insult and stare |
| While money doesn’t talk, it swears |
| Obscenity, who really cares, propaganda, all is phony |
| While them that defend what they cannot see |
| With a killer’s pride, security |
| It blows their minds most bitterly |
| For them that think death’s honesty |
| Won’t fall upon them naturally, life sometimes must get lonely |
| My eyes collide head-on with stuffed |
| Graveyards, false goals, I scuff |
| At pettiness which plays so rough |
| Walk upside-down inside handcuffs |
| Kick my legs to crash it off |
| Say, «Okay, I’ve had enough, what else can you show me?» |
| And if my thought-dreams could be seen |
| They’d probably put my head in a guillotine |
| But it’s alright, Ma |
| It’s life, and life only |