Astonished By the Light

Nobody ever tells you
When it's too late now
For a call to change the world
The pattern bends and breaks down
There's a new main theme
You begin to learn the words
It's a break room, much like all others
Old magazines, broken coffee machine
It's a mattress with checkerboard covers
A new distribution of bodies and sheets

And I will wait for the day
That it takes me away
Like a shock, like a sign
To remind me of why
There's a weight to the game
To defend or defame
But it's too late now
To pretend we've reached the end

Nobody ever tells you
When the plates start shifting
When it's one too many
You curse his name in blindness
When there's nothing left
But a void that must be seen
And it's a classroom, much like all others
A gentle insistence that someday you'll need this
And it's a phone call, you try not to stutter
To set up installments, to go back to sleep

And I will wait for the day
That it takes me away
Like a shock, like a sign
To remind me of why
There's a weight to the game
To defend or defame
But it's too late now
To pretend we've reached the end
For a call to make amends