McDermott's 2 Hours V Levellers Follow

Just A Life (Sol)

It's just a life, a shadow on a still suburban lawn
A thin silk thread between the petal and the thorn
A cold shaft of moonlight that pierces a window
And falls on the photograph on a piano
You're the curly-haired child with a vague air of alarm
Your mother wears her martyred look, your father his uniform
Just another image of a certain breed, a certain class
Which can't conceal the darkness trapped under the tilted glass

So you come to the edge
You look over it all
And you step off the ledge
Then you fly, or then you fall
Sol, Sol!

It's just a life, a hushed hall, questions on a sheet
Shoulders bowed under the pressure to compete
A neatly loaded table where you don't want to eat
A battleground, an altar, that force you to retreat
So you're a rebel in the mirror, a legend in your own bed
The master of ceremonies that take place in your own head
While they talk to you of love, all you know is hate
A bitter communion where the host disintegrates

It's just a life, a colony of spaces you can't fill
An unholy row of voices, a sense of time to kill
And the only peace you find is when you're hiding on a stage
And they tell you all the parts you play are way beyond your age
But when the lights are cut and the book's back on the shelf
It won't be long before you make an exit for yourself
So you'd like to thank your teachers' dedication and goodwill
And the doctors for the medication and the listening skills

It's just a life, a tug-of-war on a fairground in the rain
Another adolescent who couldn't take the strain
But they will make a myth of you now you won't make a man
Although they can't decide if you were Icarus or Peter Pan
So now the moon moves on beyond the empty lawn
The frame, the sheet and the table turn black
Leaving you stranded with the lost and the unborn
Here, now, always, where you can't come back