[Prelude]
I was voted
"Most Likely To Grieve After Graduation"
I just wasn't ready to leave

[Verse]
I carved my name in the bark
I was good where I stood,
I saw no reason to part ways
No reason to partake in the heart break
I hung my boots on the
tongue of my roots after a hard day
But the ark came and friends bailed
to set sail over the dark depths
Still, I found the fable far-fetched
Sitting at the bar sipping beer
Watching stars disappear
'til there wasn't a star left
I was Clark Kent.
Without the suit underneath.
Burying the pain with my tongue-in-cheek
Ask to say something sweet,
I'd pull out rubber teeth and say something cheap
I've kept myself in neutral
Fixated on the rear view, staring at the pupils
both past and present
Taking note of when they've shown
Some have shrunk, some have grown
Some have sunk like a stone
Flunked or flown, we all search
for the center of the cyclone
only take a mild case of my old ways
To pick up a phone
But all I've done is migrate
into the shadows five-fold
Like the phantom of the opera

[Hook]
Just a drag, just a toke
a half of a pack of your passion to cope
Black bag and a rope
a crack in the past to mask with a joke
Nobody laughs at the jester
Blind in need of hope
Everyone laughs at the gesture
'cause I don't even smoke

[Verse]
That night, I stole the show selfishly
Without a torch of my own, I'd bask in the glow
of those that held them and helped me see
It was naive of me to hope it would last
But when everyone stood up, I stood back
Holding my back against the current
Searching for direction in
a less-than-glassy surface
What the future held had me nervous
a crystal ball with black glass
Coming from a black past,
my future had to be perfect
Instead, I got hostile and dug myself a foxhole
Digging in one spot trying to find gold
Digging in one spot for copper fossils
Following the north star stitched into my blindfold
Only come to find it was a moth hole
Ma may have insisted on swimming lessons
but I somehow found
drowning as my best profession
Bachelor's in deception, masters in misdirection
Magician's assistant waving a white flag
I feel so bad but I feel more mad
to have turned the biggest night
of our lives into a gag
I held the reigns of my pain
and chose to mask it
Mr. Marland's back flip times ten
A false bravado of bravery
in a smile with a buck tooth
I said goodbye to my friends
forever
with a foam finger "fuck you"