Slippery Pearls

What you hold back from the minute
The minute will lack
If you don't claim it from the hour
Then the hour takes it back
All our wants will pass quickly
What remains is our need
And mama don't make no medicine
That'll cure that disease

Nothing is certain here in this world
You drop all your treasures
Just like slippery pearls
Oh, it's hard to find a handle
On the things that you see
'Cause they slide right through your fingers
Just like slippery pearls

What you don't lock up inside your heart
The world will consume
Might slip right down the throat of greed
Or through the floorboards in your room
There's two thieves namеd pain and pleasure
Neithеr one is true
You ransom your flesh to save your bones
Then they come and take those too

Nothing is certain here in this world
You drop all your treasures
Just like slippery pearls
Oh, it's hard to find a handle
On the things that you see
'Cause they slide right through your fingers
Just like slippery pearls

They don't make a map, no, to guide you
Through the badlands of the soul
You could lose yourself to blind conceit
Or to the hunger for control
Try to guard it all from the elements
And still gonna fall apart
'Cause the world outside don't pose no threat
Like the darkness in our hearts
Hey...

Nothing is certain here in this world
You drop all your treasures
Just like slippery pearls
Oh, it's hard to find a handle
On the things that you see
'Cause they slide right through your fingers
Just like slippery pearls

Nothing, nothing is certain
You drop all your treasures
Just like slippery pearls
And it's hard to find a handle
On the things that you see
'Cause they all slide right through your fingers
Just like slippery pearls, yeah...