There was something in the air that day
Like gunpowder or sulfur
And soon a wild migration came from upstairs like a
Storm
I was at a costume party and although nobody noticed
Me
I mingled there stark naked All my emperor's clothes
Were torn
And suddenly the sprinkler system ran the makeup down
Her dress
And I must confess I had forgotten who I went to meet
There
Something was not right right there
And there I saw you five years later like someone I'd
Never seen before
And my life flashed before me and exploded into
Flames
Now I just sit back and laugh cause the only thing
That's changed
Are the faces and the names
So I thought I'd say hello but that building it was
Burning
And you turned and ran away just like the vision I
Remember
Right then I got run over by a local politician
Who had said that segregation would be good for
Education
So there I was stark naked with a racist policitian in
About three feet of water in a building that was
Burning
We looked to find an exit then he said he owned the
Building
I was breathing in the suffocation blowing out the
Air
And my life flashed before me and exploded into
Flames
Now I just sit back and laugh cause the only thing
That's changed
Are the faces and the names
And had knocked myself unconcious at the time I felt
Like drowning
When I came to I was rolling through emergency room
Doors
They left me in the waiting room with work related
Head-wound victims
Wondering what happened and still bleeding on the
Floor
And sitting there my grade-school teacher stared at me
And said what happened son you could have been someone
Could have been so much more
And I thought about that party and my fine
Fair-weathered friends
And that burning building and those folks I'd never
See again
And my life flashed before me and exploded into
Flames
Now I just sit back and laugh cause the only thing
That's changed
Are the faces and the names