There's an urge I feed. Then it feeds on me. I turn it up. I call it company. There's a need for violence, An itch beneath my teeth. I grow a little hungrier With all this ugly on the streets. Hate is in the airwaves. I hear it through the wall. Someone says who ought to suffer. Someone cheers before they fall. I used to turn it down. Now I wait to hear the name. I don't know when that happened. I keep listening all the same. Show me where it hurts. Tell me who's to blame. Give me somewhere I can put What I don't know how to name. Do I have to bring the hurt To earn a right to stay? Put somebody in the dirt So you won't look away? I've been swallowing the hate. Now it wants a mouth of its own. If I give you something cruel, Will you call me one of your own? One of your own. One of your own. Let me belong. Leave me alone. At the table, someone tells a joke. I laugh a little late. Spend the bus ride feeling filthy. By the morning, it's just hate. I rehearse a better answer. It gets uglier each time. Till I'm winning every argument With a fist inside my mind. Everybody loves a hard man Till he needs somewhere to cry. So I practise looking empty. So I practise walking by. Show me where it hurts. Tell me who's to blame. Give me somewhere I can put What I don't know how to name. Do I have to bring the hurt To earn a right to stay? Put somebody in the dirt So you won't look away? I've been swallowing the hate. Now it wants a mouth of its own. If I give you something cruel, Will you call me one of your own? Someone bumps my shoulder. Says, "Sorry, mate." Keeps walking. I stand there with my answer. He's already crossed the road. He didn't even know How much I'd brought from home. I wanted him to turn. I wanted him to start. I wanted him to give me Some excuse for what I am. Do I have to bring the hurt To earn a right to stay? Put somebody in the dirt So you won't look away? I've been swallowing the hate. Now it sounds so much like me. I can't tell which thoughts are mine Till I hear them on TV. There's an urge I feed. Then it feeds on me. I turn the whole thing off. I can still hear every word.
