[verse] You punch the clock and you build the fence. You trade your hours for pennies and sense. The quiet desperation in the whites of your eyes, As you stare at the screen waiting for a surprise. Another brick laid, another door locked tight. Another shadow creeping into the night. [pre-chorus] And the teachers and the preachers keep drawing the line. Telling you how to be perfectly fine! Keep your head down! Don't look at the sun! The race is already over, and nobody won! [chorus] And the static on the wire pulls you further from the ground! You're shouting in the vacuum but there isn't any sound! Just a tiny little speck on a pale blue stone, Building a fortress to die in alone! Is there anybody out there, or just echoes in the cold? We are trading all our madness for the right to just grow old. [verse] The television flickers with a comforting lie. You watch the silver airplanes bleeding across the sky. You built a massive wall to keep the monsters at bay, But you locked yourself inside and threw the handles away. Now you're terrified of strangers and you're frightened of the dark, Just another rabid dog pacing round in the park. [pre-chorus] And the doctors and the lawyers say it's all in your head! Just take a little yellow pill and get back into bed! Keep your head down! Keep staring at the floor! Until you can't remember what you're even living for! [chorus] And the static on the wire pulls you further from the ground! You're shouting in the vacuum but there isn't any sound! Just a tiny little speck on a pale blue stone, Building a fortress to die in alone! Is there anybody out there, or just echoes in the cold? We are trading all our madness for the right to just grow old. [bridg] (Female vocalist, stepping to the front, performing a massive, wordless, wailing, soulful, agonizing vocal solo—pure raw emotion) (Male voice, muttering frantically underneath): The worms are in the floorboards. The time is slipping away. Tick, tick, tick, tick... [guitar solo] [outro] So you turn out the light. And you wait for the moon. It's quiet in here. Maybe they'll find you soon.
