sometimes you feel like a shame or like a rouse
a half-cooked idea or a tricked to be used
and sometimes you feel so lowly, haunted, and stock
waving in the wind like a flag that’s torn apart

but we all walk blindly when we stagger and we strut
and we're all dealt the hands with the cards of our luck
and we all bow down silent at the words when we're struck
by the shameless light of the broken afternoon

i went walking in the night all alone
darkness seepin’ slowly in my flesh and in my bone
and the solitary biting at the thoughts inside my head
and the words came slowly
and the unborn dream said

that we all lose the path through black and the blue
that we all come back slack leaved at the tried and the true
we'll all come together
though it's never too soon
we'll all see the light of the broken afternoon

in the scientific evening jesus slept too soon
trading his last dollar for a dirty motel room
'cus he gave all of his riches before he even knew what he had
money isn't evil
and people aren't bad

now we all just descend down to the mud and the dirt
and we all go insane from the pain and the hurt
and all of us are sweet by the hungry pale moon
but we'll all wake up clear in the broken afternoon

i used to be young, but i'm not old now
a shimmering passing of youth's gaudy bowl
the path to now or never is paved with ambition plain
as a sail in the wind
or an empty guarded space

now we all till and toil in a slowly rising dawn
and we're all fit to fail ’till the future's finally won
ya, we're all faintly waiting for the young bride to bloom
in the shuddering light of the broken afternoon