Count To Ten

There are faces, there are smiles, so many teeth, too many arms and legs
And eyes and flashing buttons all around me
I’m a-watching, I’m a-breathing, I’m a-pushing, I’m a wishing
That these walls would not be talking quite so loudly
I have lost it once before I’ve pulled myself up from the floor
And I am looking for a reason to stay standing
But sometimes it’s just too much or not enough or something else
It’s so much bigger than my head, it’s too demanding

Sometimes the fastest way to get there is to go slow
And sometimes if you wanna hold on you got to let go

I’m gonna close my eyes
And count to ten
I’m gonna close my eyes
And when I open them again
Everything will make sense to me then

I have met so many people, we’ve exchanged so many words
We’ve said it all and we’ve said nothing but it’s changed us
I have know a lot of men, some were lovers, some were friends
But all together were they merely passing strangers?
They’ll control you with their silence, they’ll control you with their words
And you’ll control them with your body’s coded signals
In the wild, entangled gardens of our insecurities
We lose our heads into eachother’s hidden pitfalls

Sometimes the fastest way to get there is to go slow
And sometimes if you wanna hold on you got to let go

I’m gonna close my eyes
And count to ten
I’m gonna close my eyes
And when I open them again
Everything will make sense to me then

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-ten…

I wake in the morning with one thing on my mind
To get up on my feet and be on my way
The wide roads are calling and I’m running out of time
To make the most of this exciting day

Hey!

Everybody’s gotta end up somewhere
I’m just taking my time to get there
And it looks like freedom and it smells like fun
But it feels like being on the run

I wake in the morning with one thing in my head
The haunting sound of chords I’ve yet to play
It sounds like a warning that maybe I should stay in bed
Before these winding roads lead my astray

Hey!

Everybody’s gotta end up somewhere
I’m just taking my time to get there
And it looks like freedom and it smells like fun
But it feels like being on the run

Somewhere there’s a place for us, a place for us
Where?
There’s a place for us…

Everybody’s gotta end up somewhere
I’m just taking my time to get there
And it looks like freedom and it smells like fun
But it feels like being on the run

Come and take my hand
It’s been so long
Since tender words last fell
From our hard tongues
Tell me, tell me now
Where we go wrong
Tell me there’s a way if we press on

And keep our arms open wide
Don’t say no to anyone
But keep our hearts safe inside
Don’t let go to anyone
And raise above the chaos of love

Come and hold my hand
You look confused
You give your best
And end up feeling used
Tell me why you struggle like you do
To draw the line between the world and you

Just keep your arms open wide
Don’t say no to anyone
But keep your heart safe inside
Don’t let go to anyone
And keep your heart safe from harm
Safe and warm in your hand
And raise above the trials of love

Come and take my hand
It’s been so long
Since tender words last fell
From our hard tongues

We’ll keep our arms open wide
Don’t say no to anyone
But keep our hearts safe inside
Don’t let go to anyone
Yeah, keep our arms open wide
Don’t say no to anyone
But keep our blood safe inside
Not on show for anyone
And raise above the chaos of love
Of love

The raindrops on the roof of the car
Sound like a warning
I’m alone in the backseat
And in the clouded sky a pondering star
Waits for morning
To go back to sleep

There’s a great big world out there
Of good and bad and everything in between
I’ve got my own small world in here
Of happy and sad and the little I have seen

Keep driving, keep driving

The silent lamppost bows down its head
Encircled by darkness
With time on its side
And when everyone I know are in bed
My light shines the sharpest
Across the divide

There’s a deep blue sea out there
Of birth and death and the lovely mess in between
I’ve got my own short life in here
Going to God-knows-where in this fast machine

Keep driving, keep driving

Through the city, past the billboards
Selling hope to hopeless souls
To the outskirts where every locked door
Has seen things that no-one knows
Past the beaches where the wind blows
And the waves caress the shore
Through the forest where a tree grows
For two hundred years or more

The raindrops on the roof of the car
Sound like a warning
I’m alone in the backseat
And in the clouded sky a lonesome star
Waits for morning
To go back to sleep

It’s late in the afternoon
The light falls through the window
It’s draws a cross
Above my bed
Where you’re on a different moon
Where violent winds blow with no course
Inside your head

You think there may be something wrong with you
To make you doubt your love like this
Well, I guess I’m singing out this song to you
To let you know I think there is

But you know better than me
You know better than anyone
You know better than me
You know better than me

”Maybe it’s selfishness” you say
”All the promise I’ve broken thoughtlesly
I know that’s no way to live”
”Or maybe it’s mere distress” I say
Fear to let anyone close enough to see
That you’ve got nothing to give?”

You say you need to travel far away
To make you think of something else
Well, I think you’d find out if you dared to stay
That far away is a place inside yourself

But you know better than me
You know better than anyone
You know better than me
You know better than me

Oh, did you ever place a bet?
Did you ever gamble anything for love?
What you give is what you get
And now you know it’s not enough

You say you need to travel far away
To make you think of something else
Well, I think you’d find out if you dared to stay
That far away is a place inside yourself

But you know better than me
You know better than anyone
You know better than me
You know better than me

Poison racing through my veins
A sordid pull to the insane
A constant gravity to change
And I don’t know where to go

Paris breaths beneath my feet
Thirsty skin against concrete
My sacred heart misleading me
And I don’t know where to go
No, I don’t know where to go

I could go home to my love
And live the life I’ve always wanted
Or I could go on running off
Into the night, lonely and haunted
And the strange thing is
I don’t know which I prefer
As I sit here and watch the sun set on Sacre Couer

Paris falls under my eyes
History against one life
My sacred heart’s on no-one’s side
And I don’t know where to go
No, I don’t know where to go

I could go home to my love
And live the life I’ve always wanted
Or I could go on running off
Into the night, lonely and haunted
And the strange thing is
I don’t know which I prefer
As I sit here and watch the sun set

I could go home to my love
And live the life I’ve always wanted
Or I could go on running off
Into the night, lonely and haunted
I could go home to my love
It’s all there if I want it
But the sad thing is
I don’t know which I prefer
As I sit here and watch the sun set on Sacre Couer

Another evening on your own
You wander round your perfect home
You watch the silent furniture you carefully picked out earlier this year

You wonder how it came to this
Had your aim but it seems you missed
All you wanted was his love but you soon discovered that was not enough

Oh, the silence
Oh, the silence in your house and in your head and in your heart
Is so loud

You thought that he could save your life
If only you would be his wife
You thought the perfect wedding day would make this awful headache go away

Oh, the silence
Oh, the silence in your house and in your head and in your heart

Stop spilling red wine on the carpets
You know the stains won’t come off anymore
Come on surprise us, no compromises this time
Ask more of life, ask more…

Oh, the silence
Oh, the silence in your house and in your head and in your heart

And in your life
Ask more of life
Ask more in life
Ask more…

Ask yourself how much you care
About dining chairs and Baudelaire
Nor craftmanship or poetry can keep a young girl happy forever
You need someone to turn you on, you need to let yourself have fun

I met a friend of a friend out in town
She grabbed my arm and said ”Girl, have you heard!”
Told me you’ve fallen back in, down and out
She’d seen you high on your knees in the dirt

”I don’t know what he is running from,” she said
”He’s so good-looking, it must be just boredom
It was awkward to meet him, I didn’t know what to say
Well, it’s none of our business anyway”
She said ”It’s none of our business anyway”

Well, if you ask me what I’m gonna do
If I ever see this shadow of you
I’ll tell you to stop
I’ll tell you to sort yourself out
And I want you to know if you ever come around
And if you ever wanna go somewhere else than down
I’ll help you to stop
I’ll help you to sort yourself out
I’ll make it my business

I caught a girl on the phone at the top of her lungs
God knows how many tequilas she’d had
”I don’t think I can go home, he hates me when I’m drunk
He says some terrible things when he’s mad”

”I don’t know what I am waiting for,” she said
”His anger goes and it comes like a cold sore
I’ve been trying to save him, that’s what he hates me for
Well, it’s none of your business anyway”
She said ”It’s not your problem anyway”

Well, if you ask me what I’m gonna say
If I ever see him stand in your way
I’ll tell him to stop
I’ll tell him to sort himself out
And I want you to know if you wanna come around
And if you need somewhere to go that doesn’t hold you down
I’ll help it to stop
I’ll help you to sort yourself out
I’ll make it my business

Do you remember the first time you said ”This once – and never again!”
You’ve said it over and over and over again since then
Tell me, what’s happened since then?

Well, if you ask me what I’m gonna do
If I ever see this shadow of you
I’ll tell you to stop
I’ll tell you to sort yourself out
And I want you to know if you ever come around
And if you ever wanna go somewhere else than down
I’ll help you to stop
I’ll help you to breath
I’ll help you to rest
I’ll help you to see
I’ll help you to know
I’ll help you to sort yourself out
I’ll make it my business

When my patience has stormed out the door
When my confidence is up against the wall
When my nails’re all bitten down and not one second before
That’s when you call
That’s when you call

When my head hurts all the way into every strain of my hair
When your absence hangs like a threat in the air
When it seems so clear that you really do not care
Suddenly you call
Suddenly you call

What are my weapons?
I can’t compete?
When all I get points for
Is to smile and be sweet
My iron gate closes
But you never notice
This war in my mind
Love is cruel to the sensitive kind

When the moment has gone tired and cold
When the silence is out of control
When I’ve said the stupidest things to try and fill this bottomless hole
Finally you speak
Finally you speak

What are my weapons?
I can’t compete?
When all I get points for
Is to smile and be sweet
My iron gate closes
But you don’t even notice
There’s a war in my mind
Love is cruel to the sensitive kind

It always had to look good
It always had to be perfect
It always had to look easy
So tell me now was it worth it?

You stand in the doorway
With a bag full of words that you can’t say
Your distant eyes on the tv
Your distant eyes won’t see me
But it’s written across the blue skies
You’re scared to stumble and realise
That underneath the cover
We’re all as frail as eachother
We’re all as frail as eachother

Everybody knows
You’re falling and it shows
Nothing stays where nothing grows
And everybody knows

It doesn’t have to look good
And you don’t have to be perfect
It doesn’t even have to be easy
No, if you’re open it’s worth it

Your hand in your pocket
I watch you stuggling to stop it
From getting out in the open
Your heart’s desire awoken
But it’s written in shallow waters
Your hand is taking its orders
From someone scared to discover
That we’re all as mad as eachother
We’re all as mad as eachother

Everybody knows
You’re breaking and it shows
Nothing stays where nothing grows
And everybody knows

Your body’s a mirror
No words could say it clearer
Like silent poems on your forehead
That turn dishonest and sordid
And there’s only one thing you can do
Let it live and let it through
It’s time to open…

Everybody knows
You’re falling and it shows
Nothing stays where nothing grows
And everybody knows

It’s an expensive ride
But I love the sound of cold coins
Falling from my hand into his
Carry me through the night
And ask me nothing but what my destination is

And I can say is:
Keep driving

Head on…
Move on…
Go on…
Drive on…