When We Were Writers

Look a gift horse in the mouth, go get a job
Last best deal I ever got
Was a quarter for a beer on the quad
Neville's singing on a makeshift stage
You sittin' on a towel in the shade
Came from a foreign town
And you smoked a joint with Jackson Browne

What if my pain won't deliver me?
What if my stasis (What if my stasis)
Crushes me with boredom?
If I read into everything you say to me
I will never get the meaning
Of your words like when you wrote them

When we were writers (when we were writers)
When we were fighters (when we were fighters)
Before we found purpose and made deals with God
Let's pull an all nighter
Push wood in the fire
It might just look like smoke in my eyes
But I'm still burning inside

Some sailed the calmer seas, serial monogamy
Best trip I ever took was on the ship
That I wrecked, and how I got set free
Strange boy in the Vegas summer
Dancing by the pool to a different drummer
Maybe a heat mirage or a message in camouflage

What if I thought that the best of me
Was spending my days doing just fine (spending my days, doing just fine)
To short change my true full capacity
And recognize it just when I was running out of time

When we were writers (when we were writers)
We were igniters (we were igniters)
Blisters to callus to scars from the war
The sentence gets tighter, the impact grows wider
When nothing is wasted nor chances denied
I've had my day in the sun, that's no lie
But I'm still burning inside

Slings and arrows, the passage narrows
The story harrowing, the word becomes flesh
Wrestle the beast that leaves you diminished
It's alright, you will never be finished

When you're a writer (when you're a writer)
When you're a fighter (when you're a fighter)
Easy to be cruel, better to be kind
Plow through the stalks of your heart's tinder box
Flint to the rock, and you'll find, you're still burning inside

When we were writers
Well, I'm still burning inside
When we were writers