Pacing the Cage

Pacing the Cage

Bruce Cockburn, 1997

Sunset is an angel weeping

Holding out a bloody sword

No matter how I squint

I cannot make out what it's pointing toward

Sometimes you feel like you live too long

Days drip slowly on the page

You catch yourself
Pacing the cage

I've proven who I am so many times

The magnetic strip's worn thin

And each time I was someone else

And every one was taken in

Powers chatter in high places

Stir up eddies in the dust of rage

Set me to pacing the cage

I never knew what you all wanted

So I gave you everything

All that I could pillage

All the spells that I could sing

It's as if the thing were written

In the constitution of the age

Sooner or later you'll wind up

Pacing the cage

Sometimes the best map will not guide you

You can't see what's round the bend

Sometimes the road leads through dark places

Sometimes the darkness is your friend

Today these eyes scan bleached-out land

For the coming of the outbound stage

Pacing the cage

Pacing the cage

Some days I miss cleaning toilets in Seattle back in 1993.

Tonight I do, anyway.

Nobody knew me, everything was new again, and I had nowhere to go but up from the bottom I hit before I moved, and I didn't have to be den mother to a bunch of folks who took but didn't give when I needed it.

It's a new day, new president and there's supposed to be hope in the air.

I'm not feeling it. Maybe that's what tomorrow is for.