joni mitchell
borderline
Everybody looks so ill at ease So distrustful so displeased Running down the table I see a borderline Like a barbed wire fence Strung tight, strung tense Prickling with pretense A borderline Why are you smirking at your friend? Is this to be the night when All well-wishing ends? All credibility revoked? Thin skin, thick jokes! Can we blame it on the smoke This borderline? Every bristling shaft of pride Church or nation Team or tribe Every notion we subscribe to Is just a borderline Good or bad, we think we know As if thinking makes things so! All convictions grow along a borderline Smug in your jaded expertise You scathe the wonder world And you praise barbarity In this illusionary place-- This scared hard-edged rat race All liberty is laced with Borderlines Every income, every age Every fashion-plated rage Every measure, every gauge Creates a borderline Every stone thrown through glass Every mean-streets-kick ass Every swan caught on the grass Will draw a borderline You snipe so steady You snub so snide-- So ripe and ready To diminish and deride! You're so quick to condescend My opinionated friend All you deface, all you defend Is just a borderline Just a borderline ... Another borderline ... Just a borderline.