《Parameters》歌词

[00:00:00] Ani DiFranco - Parameters

[00:00:19] Thirty-three years go by

[00:00:20] And not once do you come home

[00:00:21] To find a man sitting in your bedroom

[00:00:24] That is

[00:00:25] A man you don't know

[00:00:26] Who came a long way to deliver one very specific message:

[00:00:31] Lock your back door, you idiot

[00:00:34] However invincible you imagine yourself to be

[00:00:36] You are wrong

[00:00:48] Thirty-three years go by

[00:00:49] And you loosen the momentum of teenage nightmares

[00:00:53] Your breasts hang like a woman's

[00:00:55] And you don't jump at shadows anymore

[00:00:58] Instead you may simply pause to admire

[00:01:00] Those that move with the grace of trees

[00:01:02] Dancing past streetlights

[00:01:06] And you walk through your house without turning on lamps

[00:01:09] Sure of the angle from door to table

[00:01:11] From table to staircase

[00:01:13] Sure of the number of steps

[00:01:15] Seven to the landing

[00:01:16] Two to turn right

[00:01:17] Then seven more

[00:01:19] Sure you will stroll serenely on the moving walkway of memory

[00:01:23] Across your bedroom

[00:01:24] And collapse with a sigh onto your bed

[00:01:27] Shoes falling

[00:01:28] Thunk thunk

[00:01:29] Onto the floor

[00:01:30] And there will be no strange man

[00:01:32] Suddenly all that time sitting there

[00:01:35] Sitting there on what must be the prize chair

[00:01:38] In your collection of uncomfortable chairs

[00:01:40] With a wild look in his eyes

[00:01:42] And hands that you cannot see

[00:01:43] Holding what?

[00:01:44] You do not know

[00:01:51] So sure are you of the endless drumming rhythm of your isolation

[00:01:56] That you are painfully slow to adjust

[00:02:00] If only because

[00:02:01] Yours is not that genre of story

[00:02:05] Still and again, life cannot muster the stuff of movies

[00:02:09] No bullets shattering glass

[00:02:11] Instead fear sits patiently

[00:02:14] Fear almost smiles when you finally see him

[00:02:16] Though you have kept him waiting for thirty-three years

[00:02:19] And now he has let himself in

[00:02:21] And he has brought you fistfuls of teenage nightmares

[00:02:24] Though you think you see, in your naivete

[00:02:26] That he is empty handed

[00:02:27] And this brings you great relief

[00:02:30] At the time

[00:02:35] New as you are, really, to the idea that

[00:02:38] Even after you've long since gotten used to the parameters

[00:02:41] They can all change

[00:02:43] While you're out one night having a drink with a friend

[00:02:45] Some big hand may be turning a big dial

[00:02:48] Switching channels on your dreams

[00:02:50] Until you find yourself lost in them

[00:02:53] And watching your daily life with the sound off

[00:02:58] And of course having cautiously turned down

[00:03:01] the flame under your eyes

[00:03:03] There are more shadows around everything

[00:03:05] Your vision a dim flashlight

[00:03:07] that you have to shake all the way to the outhouse

[00:03:10] Your solitude elevating itself like the spirit of the dead

[00:03:14] Presiding over your supposed repose

[00:03:17] Not really sleep at all

[00:03:19] Just a sleeping position and a series of suspicious sounds

[00:03:23] A clanking pipe

[00:03:24] A creaking branch

[00:03:25] The footfalls of a cat

[00:03:37] All of this and maybe

[00:03:39] The swish of the soft leather of your intruder's coat

[00:03:43] As you walk him step by step back to the door

[00:03:46] Having talked him down off the ledge of a very bad idea

[00:03:50] Soft leather, big feet, almond eyes

[00:03:53] The kinds of details the police officer would ask for later

[00:03:56] With his clipboard

[00:03:58] And his pistol

[00:03:59] In your hallway

[00:05:54] END

[00:05:54] END