What You Will

I had a friend who had to vent
On a time that left him quite verklempt
I asked exactly what he meant
And helplessly he said:
"I'm just a boy with a broken dream
And a chemical dependency
That's eating up what's left of me
While they say plan ahead"
He asked his father "what's the point?
The future ain't too bright."
Then dad replied for the first time:
"I think you might be right"
Cause your generation's on medication
Blinded by inebriation
Wallowing in procrastination
Frankly bored of education
Live in fear of foreign nations
Nuclear annihilation
Searching for an explanation
While I have the realization that it's all my fault
And such is life

I held a girl for a bit of a while
In an age where a smile was out of style
She made denial seem worth while
I never quite knew how
She had a voice and a wish for fame
And claimed the world would know here name
I told her I once felt the same
But look where I am now
So darling, keep your head on straight
The vision won't pan out
She'd say "I always get my way and
You can just get out!"
So she worked real hard and she danced away
But put a play for her mirror all day
And the years went by, she turned 28
Over the hill and a little too late
With deteriorating mental health
The president's dead cause she proved herself
And though you never heard her sing
She's on magazines and TV screens
While she sits and smiles in a prison cell
Where she hung herself with a studded belt
She went out like a star
And such is life

I knew a fella so tried and true
He's a lot like me and a bit like you
Who struggled through what bound him to
A social web of lies
He saw the things he chose to see
Inside a world of fantasy
And he never fit too comfortably
In anybody's eyes
But, when the system pulled his card and said, "
You turned out right
We fed you fear for 18 years, preparing for a fight
So, son get off that unicorn and come try on this uniform
Cause these are the colors that never run:
Red, white, blue, and a silver gun
Though he never laid a finger on anyone, he just sang his songs and had his fun
On the battlefield he met his end
When he took a bullet to save his friend
His mom got word the other day
And a letter that read, "Thanks anyway
But that's how freedom rings." And such is life

My thought on everybody else
Would lead me back to view myself
And take the sorrow that I felt
To build a case-in-point
My home sweet home of lemon drops
Where dinner's served on counter tops
The healthy family unit stops
When parents disappoint
The stranger's hand that feeds you is a jackal in disguise
That sends us poison arrows from apocalyptic skies
There's a fallout child with an empty face
Who'll finish last in the human race
In a vegetative state at his parents' place
An ashamed disgraced who's afraid to age
His rage enslaves a caged white dove
Who's raised on drugs and selfish love
The product of a time defined by me, myself, and I combined
With a slow decline on a string of pills
While the world keeps turning, we're standing still
And growing up all wrong
The sandbox lines are drawn
The backward beat goes on
And such is life