At Arms Length

Fire off your mouth 

A shot across the bow

The chauvinist who goes ballistic 

So insistant, self-inflicted 

I wait for the blow, to undergo a show of our strength

Force will take the poll, we keep the whole world at arms length

Collecting shells upon the sand 

We set our sights for foreign land

And breathe the burning powder 

As we wait for tides to change 

Plunging in only arms deep 

The blood of ages, widows weep 

And measure down the barrel 

Pray for pain to test our aim 

Don’t tell me they don’t kill 

When all these people will 

Not a day goes by and still 

We’re shaking with the thrill 

Of burning holes to drill 

With bullets, blood to spill

Overture

I’ve been told there are those whom you love and those that you leave

And mostly I fall on the latter half of these 

Okay, let’s admit it I fit quite adequately 

In the category of those you’d do well to forget or flea 

But I can’t be okay as the mistake you might say 

You only made on your way to something better

A moment of bliss that’s maybe missed but won’t matter

A friendship that bloomed but was always doomed to fail

A ship full of dreams shared but now long-since sailed

I don’t want to be just a footnote to your fairytale 

I don’t want to be just another long-lost lesson learned 

A bridge long burned, a fork you turned and never looked back

I’m losing track of the facts in the case of those who stabbed mine when I had theirs 

And I’m starting to be scared that my judgement is highly impared 

Though it’s certainly not all your fault or really all mine either

It’s just that I am most commonly the common denominator and besides, there’s

So many people who seem to find happiness everyday 

It can make one wonder if maybe I just don’t work that way 

Is my acquaintance just one of those steps that you’ll take 

On the path to a promised happily ever after 

So you can laugh it off someday so glad you avoided that disaster 

Whether it’s a matter of fate or if I’m my own life-line’s master

The universe is happy either way to watch me fail 

And end up as just a footnote to your fairytale