The Open Air

[Verse 1:]
This is it, far as I can tell
The ice stays cold on the road to hell
A frozen kind of fucking stubborn ambition that stays inside
So play me out to my very end
And drag me out 'til my face is red
From the blood that pulses through systems in front of the masses staring on
And I just have to sit there
This is not an uncommon thing
’Cause I say it once and I live it in
To operate as if every word is a drop of rain in a storm
Is a pretty fucking stupid idea
But I took the risk and the payoff's real
Complications arise in the form of a tick that won't stop sucking
Six years on, it’s a whole new world
The spinning top on a chaos twirl
And when it beats me up and it spits me out, I'm bruised and convulsing
Well it's funny now, and it was funny then
But if you believed that I would just pretend
That I'm following along like I always have then you'll see it erupt too soon

[Pre-Chorus:]
For my gentle breathing is guaranteed to fail
Because I've never been so embarrassed as when I stepped into the open air

[Chorus:]
I did it all for you
Like you would want me to
My blood will pressurize
Content to compromise

[Pre-Verse:]
It's optimistic to move forward
Without accepting the backwards steps
That one will take to forge the path
That leads the chosen to Heaven's gate

[Verse 2:]
Dead belief seems to take the stage
Casting shadows of grief and rage
And all the while the audience clamors for its expected encore
But the show don’t come, so they all go home
A line of people all dragging stones
And I only have myself to blame for the process that started it, forced me to count on it

[Chorus:]
In the open air
I did it all for you
In the open air
Like you would want me to
In the open air
My blood will pressurize
In the open air
Content to compromise
In the open air
They’re gonna suss me out
In the open air
Especially to guess me out
In the open air
So it's important to
In the open air
Do what you want me to

[Post-Chorus:]
So I first laid down some groundwork rules, but rules that were made to be broken
And man, I was confident they could be broken with ease at any time, at any place
But now I have found that it’s harder to face the flood that I have brought upon us
Than just to sink into submission and let us drown under the waves

[Verse 3:]
The other week I did something stupid
Something to ease my fears or settle me in
In the end it brought me neither conclusion
It had me feeling lower than I had ever been
I took a drive down a lonely road
A lonely road that I have etched into my head
And it's the place that I used to go
Every morning I woke and every night in bed
And driving past I saw in the windows
A little glimpse of the rooms inside that place
And all the memories and good times that followed
Were just too much for my withered mind to take
All the remnants that are left behind
Are locked up in me where they toss and turn
And seeing my old home was a way to remind
Of that which I'm certain will not return
The guarantee, the security
The sincerity of my younger years
Or the little hope, the possibility
Of brighter days that have since disappeared
Breathe the open air

[Interlude]