Fly Away

[Verse 1]
The first teacher I ever had called me a problem child
And I fulfilled her prophecy acting and talking wild
I couldn’t sit still and fought with the other kids
They tried to bully me, I was taught with a fuckin’ fist
I doodled and wrote poems instead of paying attention
Never did my homework but I got A’s when they tested
I cussed like a sailor and stayed on suspension
At their course to teach conformity I strayed from the lesson
Scoffed at authority, berated their methods
So on threat of expulsion I was placed in some sessions
Where I was evaluated on my productivity
And shrinks calculated that there’s no fucks within me
Told my folks their little shit is getting prescribed Ritalin
So they could be on their way to molding a fine citizen
Said I could be anything then put me inside a box
Doped me up and clipped my wings, not looking to right the wrongs

[Chorus]
When you hatch they clip your wings so that you can’t fly away
Parrot your parents so they can catch you and find a cage
Society is a pipeline for eroding the soul
Birds of a feather circling the omens foretold
It’s just recognizing the cycle, lo and behold
Lay some eggs of your own while you go with the flow
Doing as expected by the status of time and place
And when they hatch you’ll clip their wings so that they can’t fly away

[Verse 2]
Mom and dad took me off that shit then I dabbled in drugs
When we moved out to the country with the cattle and bugs
Where my mental state declined I was feeling dejected
I found toxicity and not a healing perspective
The ignorance of my peers fresh from their parents’ lips
I saw their skin change to the flesh of the careless pigs
That indoctrinated them just as much as the schools
So it was socially accepted if you functioned as fools
Peddled lies about morality of killing for flags
Post Columbine in the pasture spilling some mags
Thinking it’d be noble to fight and die for my country
And if I live to see college then my life could be something
So I decided to focus and finished my senior year
Then signed up to be the same menace in greener gear
With a stamp of approval from my family and friends
And some kind of idea I could be all I can be again

[Chorus]
When you hatch they clip your wings so that you can’t fly away
Parrot your parents so they can catch you and find a cage
Society is a pipeline for eroding the soul
Birds of a feather circling the omens foretold
It’s just recognizing the cycle, lo and behold
Lay some eggs of your own while you go with the flow
Doing as expected by the status of time and place
And when they hatch you’ll clip their wings so that they can’t fly away

[Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Full Metal Jacket)]
You're the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human fuckin' beings! You are nothing but unorganized grab-asstic pieces of amphibian shit! Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. I am hard, but I am fair! There is no racial bigotry here! I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless! And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps!

[Verse 3]
Graduated basic training then sent to artillery
Still filled with emptiness and left with the will to leave
But I’m good at the task of calling in coordinates
And pin pointing targets for a volley of mortar hits
They sent me to get trained to designate air strikes
So A10s and Apaches could devastate their side
Their side being people just defending their land
From a foreign occupation in unending advance
Exploiting their resources and I was a pawn
Just doing as I was told and guiding their bombs
Leveling infrastructure setting children on fire
Hollow inside and chilled before the guilt will inspire
These murderous hands to bring a barrel up to my temple
Quivering as I cry it ain’t fair enough I’m resentful
Suicide don’t solve sins it’s a messy escape
But it’s my only way out, now you can empty the cage

[Chorus]
When you hatch they clip your wings so that you can’t fly away
Parrot your parents so they can catch you and find a cage
Society is a pipeline for eroding the soul
Birds of a feather circling the omens foretold
It’s just recognizing the cycle, lo and behold
Lay some eggs of your own while you go with the flow
Doing as expected by the status of time and place
And when they hatch you’ll clip their wings so that they can’t fly away

[Verse 4]
That was almost me, a mass murderer for the state
A timeline I see in a flash surfacing in my brain
See, I ended up pissing hot right before deploying
‘Cause I was getting high without anymore enjoyment
In the job realizing that I’m the boot to another
Who never did me wrong and that’s the truth I discovered
No, that ain’t the war that I’m destined to wage
I need to fight for the beliefs they suppressed in them days
All the way back in school where I questioned their place
Then phased the fuck out staring at my desk off in space
There was something inside me they never could iron out
With the whispers of bigotry kept in a quiet town
My desire to be good outweighed their influence
And I didn’t need their God and their favorite excuses
I embrace unapologetic now a total rejection
Of the old that they uphold in these vocal dissections

[George Carlin]
Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked. Conservatives don't give a shit about you until you reach "military age". Then they think you are just fine. Just what they've been looking for. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. Pro-life... pro-life... These people aren't pro-life, they're killing doctors! What kind of pro-life is that? What, they'll do anything they can to save a fetus but if it grows up to be a doctor they just might have to kill it. They're not pro-life. You know what they are? They're anti-woman. Simple as it gets, anti-woman

[Refrain]
(Clip my wings)
(Let me fall)
(To the ground)
(Where I’ll crawl)