Break the Silence

Break the silence What's it gonna take To be the you you are To not the you you ain't Move like I did Coming out the gate When I had nothing to lose But I knew not how to use it Who all can say you've not yet found your glory Who all can tell you not to sing your story Who all can tell you not to spit your fire Sweet little songbird sitting on a wire And the wire's live I'm about to ride the lightning I'm gonna die I'm gonna lie in a grave I'd never lie on a page I'm just a guy on a stage And so before I decay I'll find a way to break the silence Choose whose violence You can tolerate The violence of your country The violence of your state The piles upon piles upon miles of excuses The "everybody's foolish but I know what the truth is" The tower's falling The empire's crumbling Seawater's rising And the club's still bumping I need to laugh and grab some life by the horns But there's a billion hungry people now can't get through the door The war is raging Time is priceless Time to fight this fight for those not yet born For what's right And what might otherwise turn a whole damn country into islands Get off your high horse and break the silence If you dare to walk through that door? Will you ever come back the same You say you want to be more Underestimate the way your brain can ignore If you dare to walk through that door? Will you ever come back the same You say you want to be more Underestimate the way your brain can ignore If you dare to walk through that door? Will you ever come back the same you were before Break the silence What is there to say Eight billion people trying to head a different way And everyone's a star driving alone in their car Everyone's a moon talking shit in their room And everything's a battle and a hassle and drag And the world's full of matches and oily rags Shine too brightly and it all might combust But the world gets darker if you dim your light too much Find the balance Or just get through the day Find your voice And find something to say Don't just whet your beak like you're weak and childish But when it's time to speak Then break the silence I sat for ten days in a state of pain Healing my heart by observing my brain Making up things about the people around me Stirring up memories so deep they could drown me Clearing away the dust and the death Then back at it again, and then back to the breath Back down the hall and then back for some rest Back down to hell and come back to the breath Keep the silence sacred Keep the sacred holy Understand that this is not for you only I found the technique on day number nine Kept on holding my tongue Put some air in my lungs Then it was time To break the silence Wallow, wallow, wallow, wallow Wallow in your pity You walk around the city Like you're getting somewhere No, you wallow, wallow, wallow, wallow Wallow in your pity You walk around the city Like you're getting somewhere How low, how low, how low, how low How low can you go? Break the silence I didn't say much on Trump Didn't say much on Palestine Not that I was so quiet instead But what was there to say that wasn't already said? I haven't said much on Israel or Palestine Did you need my official statement Has one person even asked for that this time? Any time? No, but staying silent doesn't feel right either Children are dying at the hands of fucked up leaders What can I do from my tiny little page Jump in the van and then jump on a stage Jump up and down for the boys and the girls I came to have a good time without ignoring the world So if it soothes you to say it then let it be heard May it sting like a jellyfish then fly like a bird Might the joy in this room heal some amount of violence Speak with the dips of your hips and your lips And break the silence (I could probably sing that)