Outlier

Fear is inherited

Fear is a frightening disease

Fear’s a genetic mutation

Fear’s on the flip side of grief

I fear the faces I don’t see

When I’m looking outward from here

Outwards in a fifty mile radius

So it’s the outlier you fear.

“Come and put your feet on the white line

Come and put your back against the wall

Just gonna lock the door for a second

There’s nothing here to look at here at all”

How many ways we gonna teach the kids to

Lock em out

Lock em out

Lock em out

Lock em out

Creep low

We gonna show you how.

Love might be aching or scorching

Depending on whose life was spent

Was it some kid who knew he was dying

Or some tortured and fractured soul bent sideways and sure of destruction

And clinging to faith that he’s right

In a place we all live in together

Just trying to survive the night

“Baby what you say to a stranger?

Baby what we do to a friend?

Baby how well do you really know your neighbor?

Baby here’s a something to defend?”

How many ways we gonna teach the kids to

Shut em out

Shut em out

Shut em out

Shut em out

And so

How they gonna grow proud?

How’ll they grow feeling strong and loud?