(Verse 1) The doctor smacks your brand-new skin, the calendar begins A number on a government form, where everybody wins They wrap you up in swaddling clothes, beneath a naked bulb's dull glow And you don't know nothin' yet, but you're already on the show The pawns are on the chessboard, the first die has been cast You're learnin' how to breathe now, in a world that's built to last. (Verse 2) Then you're standin' in a classroom, with a paste-pot and a lie Recitin' words you don't understand with a fire in your eye They teach you 'bout the kings and queens, and how the river flows But they don't tell you 'bout the price tag on the secondhand clothes You love the one you shouldn't love, you fight the one you should And you finally see the mechanism's made of worm-eaten wood. (Chorus) Oh, the pages of the ledger, they keep turnin' in the wind Another chapter entered, another foolish grin They hand you scrolls and promises, they hand you debt and wine And you keep checkin' off them boxes on some crooked, dotted line From the cradle to the compromise, a most peculiar path Just a shadow in the census, dodgin' society's wrath. (Verse 3) Then you're swearin' words in some back room, with a ring of faded gold Tryin' to build a fortress from a story that's been told You work a job that eats your soul to pay for someone's dream A cog inside a great big clock that doesn't know your name The children come, with hungry eyes and echoes of your face And you see your own reflection in this wild, relentless race. (Verse 4) Now the friends you had are memories, their faces start to blur Some are buried 'neath the oak tree, some are just a distant whirr You feel the chill of winter creepin' in around the door And you understand the game a little better than before You look back at the photographs, a ghost in every frame And you whisper to the emptiness, "Nobody's left to blame." (Chorus) Oh, the pages of the ledger, they are brittle now and thin The final columns callin', where the cold must settle in They handed you the scrolls and lies, they handed you the wine And you signed on every dotted line, again, again, and again From the cradle to the quiet, a most peculiar path Just a whisper in the silence, a laugh against the math. (Outro) The nurse she comes to make the bed... the sun goes down so fast... Yeah, the nurse she comes to make the bed... ...Just another shadow, passin' through the glass.
