Pacing The Cage

Words & Music:

Bruce Cockburn

 

[capo 3]

 

C      G/B           F2/A   C       G/B            F2/A

Sunset is an angel weeping, holding out a bloody sword.

C         G/B              F2/A C        G/B                  F2/A

No matter how I squint I cannot make out what it's pointing toward.

F                              G

Sometimes you feel like you've lived too long.

Am                          F

Days drip slowly on the page.

F                  G               F  G

You catch yourself pacing the cage.

 

I've proven who I am so many times the magnetic strips worn thin.

And each time I was someone else and everyone was taken in.

Powers chatter in high places,

Stir up eddies in the dust of rage.

Set me to pacing the cage.

 

I never knew what you all wanted, so I gave you everything.

All that I could pillage, all the spells that I could sing.

It's as if the thing were written

In the constitution of the age.

Sooner or later you'll wind up pacing the cage.

 

INSTRUMENTAL VERSE:

 

Sometimes the best map will not guide you.

You can't see what's 'round the bend.

Sometimes the road leads through dark places,

Sometimes the darkness is your friend.

Today, these eyes scan bleached-out land.

G              F

Pacing the cage.

G              F  C

Pacing the cage.