Magician's Best Trick

(album: No One's Slate Is Clean - 2010)

Take me back, I won't do it again
"Nothing has an end," Parmenides once said
So forget what was once fallible and written in lead
Forget me not if today is all we have left
Tomorrow is a magician's best trick
Put your yesterdays back into that pretty head

Take me back, teach me how to change
You can't mold me, you can't shape me
You can't fit me into your little frame
Know your soil before it rains
I suppose no one is really to blame
For this endless and recycled shame

Take me back, but keep your expectations low
Don't you give to receive
It'll leave you ample with greed
And when you look at your reflection don't you try to find me
Judge not the colors but the whole painting
Don't go searching for the bad that could be
'Cause you will find it comes subconsciously

Take me back, but take me how I come
My slate it ain't clean, but I will not forget where I came from
So don't tell me how to do things when that's always how they've been done
I've always taken the road less traveled on
So you can meet me here when you've moved on
But you can't have me how you want
The truth is you can't have me at all