You thought you could free the slaves By filling out the proper paperwork 'Till you turned out all your pockets And realized they never were
You pulled your kids out of the public school And resigned to your irreverence And you set a torch to the old duck blind Where your heartache took up residence
You were all dressed up But you didn't know what All the commotion inside you was for
What did we expect After all that shame? Some familiar stretch of crippling faith? What did we expect After all that fear? Some inheritance To make the past run clear?
Thought we could concentrate just hard enough To let those feelings in We were both stuck in the turning lane But that's where we've always been
I guess we took our love in one big dose And retired to the peasantry Saying "paradise exists But it is locked away inside our memories"
You couldn't sit still Not while you knew well That all the commotion Was held in your name.