Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses, both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece, the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
That he not busy being born, is busy dying

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover that you'd just be
One more person crying

So don't fear if you hear a foreign sound to your ear
It's all right, ma, I'm only sighing

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all except hatred

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh colored Christ's that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
Not much is really sacred

And though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you've got to dodge
And it's all right, ma, I can make it

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, ma, to live up to

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks they really found you

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy, ensure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That isn't not he or she or them or it
That you belong to

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be nothing more
Than something they invest in

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
And if my thought, dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's all right, ma, it's life and life only

I'm only sighing
I'm only sighing
I'm only sighing