It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) ( Bob Dylan )

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 alright, 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 Christs
that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without
looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

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

An' though the rules of
the road have been lodged
It's only people's games
that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I
can make it.

Advertising signs that
con you
Into thinking you're the
one
That can do what's never
been done
That can win what's never
been won
Meantime life outside
goes on
All around you.

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
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind
and not forget
That it is not he or she
or them or it
That you belong to.

Although the masters make
the rules
For the wise men and the
fools
I got nothing, Ma, to
live up 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
to be
Nothing more than
something
They invest in.

While some on principles
baptized
To strict party platform
ties
Social clubs in drag
Outsiders they can freely
criticize
Tell nothing except who
to idolize
And then say God bless
him.

While one who sings with
his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race
choir
Bent out of shape from
society's pliers
Cares not to come up any
higher
But rather get you down
in the hole
That he's in.

But I mean no harm nor
put fault
On anyone that lives in a
vault
But it's alright, Ma, if
I can't please him.

Old lady judges watch
people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals,
insult and stare
While money doesn't talk,
it swears
Obscenity, who really
cares Propaganda, all is
phony.

While them that defend
what they cannot see
With a killer's pride,
security
It blows the minds most
bitterly
For them that think
death's honesty
Won't fall upon them
naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.

My eyes collide head-on
with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays
so rough
Walk upside-down inside
handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it
off
Say okay, I have had
enough
What else can you show
me?

And if my thought-dreams
could be seen
They'd probably put my
head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma,
it's life, and life only.


Copyright © 1965
Special Rider Music

[Columbia Records]