No One Here Is Roman
When in Rome,
Do what the Romans do!
'Yeah...
But no one here is Roman.
And I don't understand
One thing they are doing! '
That's okay neither do they!
Pretend you are a tourist.
Everyone else does!
And they have been pretentious,
Long before you noticed them.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
When In Rome
Well, you must be from the city
'Cause you sure ain't from round here
There ain't no smoke free section
We don't sell no import beer.
You been throwin' round that attitude
Since you walked in that door
I don't know where you come from
But you ain't there anymore
When in Rome,
You can do like the Roman's
But, when your down home
You better do like us.
You been lookin' down your nose
At our water tower town
Ain't no one getting rich
But, there's enough to go around.
If ya don't like tracy's cookin'
Well, ya best still leave a tip
She's back there in that kitchen
With a baby on her hip.
When in Rome,
You can do like the Roman's
But, when your down home
You better do like us.
You put your best foot forward
When you go to meet a man
Look him in the eye
And put a good grip on his hand.
Don't cuss around the ladies
Tell us how to raise our kids
We like doing business
Like our daddys, daddys did.
When you drive off in your beamer
If ya don't do 35
Don't give no lip to Beuford
Or he might just dot your eye.
And when your at the courthouse
Before Ole judge McCall
You best not say a word
About them comandments on his wall.
Naw!
When in Rome,
You can do like the Roman's
But when your down home
You better do like us.
Yeah, Yeah Yeah
When in Rome,
You can do like the Roman's
But when your down home
You better do like us.
Mmmm Hmmmm
Better do like us boy
Don't you come in here talking all that trash
Ya just might get your nose smashed.
When in Rome,
You can do like the Roman's...
song performed by by Travis Tritt

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It's A Love Thing
Yeah, yeah
Ooh it's a love thing
I been working all day long
And I'm ready to come on home to you
All the other guys roll their eyes
And don't realize it's what I want to do
It's what I want to do
They say I'm wrapped around your finger
But they don't understand
That what we got is more than just a diamond
On your hand
Baby it's a love thing, whoa
Baby it's a love thing, yeah
Sure I could hang around and complain about
The way things ought to be
Yeah there's trouble in the world
But you're the girl
Whose open arms are all I really need
And that's why I come runnin'
To be there by your side
To let 'em call me crazy
But it can't be denied
Baby it's a love thing, whoa
Baby it's a love thing, yeah
And it's not about the same last name
It's not a thing that can be explained
It's how you make me feel inside
And the way you hold me everynight
It's a love thing, whoa
Oh baby, it's a love thing, yeah
He we go now
It's a love thing
They say I'm wrapped around your finger
But they don't understand
That what we got is more than just a diamond
On your hand
Baby it's a love thing, whoa
Oh baby it's a love thing, yeah
Come on it's a love thing, whoa
Oh baby, It's a love thing, yeah
Oh, it's a love thing, whoa
Oh sugar, it's a love thing
No it ain't about no diamond ring
It's a love thing, whoa
Oh baby it's a love thing, yeah
It's a love, it's a love, it's a love thing
song performed by by Keith Urban

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Rome
O thou newcomer who seek’st Rome in Rome
And find’st in Rome no thing thou canst call Roman;
Arches worn old and palaces made common
Rome’s name alone within these walls keeps home.
Behold how pride and ruin can befall
One who hath set the whole world ’neath her laws,
All-conquering, now conquered, because
She is Time’s prey, and Time conquereth all.
Rome that art Rome’s one sole last monument,
Rome that alone hast conquered Rome the town,
Tiber alone, transient and seaward bent,
Remains of Rome. O world, thou unconstant mime!
That which stands firm in thee Time batters down,
And that which fleeteth doth outrun swift Time.
poem by Ezra Pound

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The Roman Cemetery
Abused have been the Romans
by certain scholars of more recent times
for not creating metaphysics
like other glorious nations,
but only aqueducts, roads, colosseums, forums,
the eternal city, castra, border, earthwork.
Abused have been the Romans
for building only houses, with atria
receiving daylight from above,
and with the warning on their doorsills: cave canem.
If fate would have you come to Rome some day
and deep into the countryside, my friend, along the Via Apia
you were to wander,
you would then understand, oh, how unjust the balance is
in which people and peoples weigh
each other’s hearts and virtues. For you would see a Way
unrolling on and on into the landscape,
stone after stone, all fitting,
a Way lined left and right
with urns, sarcophaguses, mausoleums
preserving ashes, relics sheltering.
Thus did the Romans see the Way, defying every limit,
into the mighty realm of life through death advancing,
laid out in rows
on either side. And those who in the shade of cypresses
in sarcophaguses are sleeping, hear the sound
of shields and lances, hear the cohorts marching,
the wheels of chariots, the horses’ neighing. In due course
all this no longer does exist
but the more ancient dead still listen to the Way
that sounds on earth.
Thus did the Romans visualize a cemetery:
a way lined with two rows of silences.
And that is Roman metaphysics: a Way.
A way advancing through the dead, not through the quick.
poem by Lucian Blaga, translated by Dan Duţescu

Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Tenuous and Precarious
Tenuous and Precarious
Were my guardians,
Precarious and Tenuous,
Two Romans.
My father was Hazardous,
Hazardous
Dear old man,
Three Romans.
There was my brother Spurious,
Spurious Posthumous,
Spurious was Spurious,
Was four Romans.
My husband was Perfidious,
He was Perfidious
Five Romans.
Surreptitious, our son,
Was Surreptitious,
He was six Romans.
Our cat Tedious
Still lives,
Count not Tedious
Yet.
My name is Finis,
Finis, Finis,
I am Finis,
Six, five, four, three, two,
One Roman,
Finis.
poem by Stevie Smith

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Roman Polanski: What is There to Debate? Whether Rape is Rape-Rape?
I know he is great director.
I know that he had great stresses in his life from childhood on.
I know that he had won countless awards for his cinema, his ‘magic’ and his craft.
I know that Roman Polanski is a statutory rape predator.
I know that there was something in his psyche that little girls had done.
I know what rape means, it is control, and it’s been 32 years ago,
- he had control or am I daft.
She said “No, no, I want to go home”
“It’s been so long ago”, his fans do say.
It is sort of like meth head saying,
“I promised you $400 for that guitar I bought you from last year,
But not in future and not today.”
And the infamous Bill Clinton line
-'It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. “
That one still confounds me still to this day.
(But not as much as Caitlin Upton’s response when she was asked a question in a pageant about geography I do recall.)
Roman Polanski is a fugitive from the law.
I know that Roman Polanski is a statutory rape predator
The French blame the US level of justice.
Roman elected to live in the US not France,
Do in Rome what the Romans do.
And if you ‘play’ you have to pay.
And if by chance,
You run afoul of the country’s law pity the fool.
His next stop is a prison cell door.
Especially, when you are a 40+ year old man taking advantage of a 13 year old girl.
I know that Roman Polanski is a statutory rape predator.
Roman Polanski gave her alcohol and Quaaludes,
Consensual sex, hardly it behooves the point,
Someone should lock him up for the next 32 years in the joint.
Roman’s violation of the law is not only against her,
But it is a violation against the People of California,
And consequently, the People of the United States.
I know that Roman Polanski is a statutory rape predator.
If Roman Polanski is not extradited,
- then a part of millennia of common moral law is about to fail.
If Roman Polanski is extradited he will not go free on bail.
If he were Marc Rich and President Clinton was in power,
And if Roman Polanski gave serious money to Clinton’s Library,
Roman, like Marc Rich, could be pardoned, exonerated-either or.
Roman should pay for his abuse of a child whatever years ago,
She quite older now but the state doesn’t forget.
Especially when his lawyers instigated the recent events,
-that too do they would soon regret.
But when its all said and done,
I know that Roman Polanski is a statutory rape predator.
10-2-09
poem by Joe Rosochacki

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Since You've Been Gone
Here's the thing we started off friends
It was cool but it was all pretend
Yeah yeah
Since you've been gone
You dedicated you took the time
Wasn't long till I called to mine
Yeah yeah
Since you've been gone
And all you'd ever hear me say
Is how I pictured me with you
That's all you'd ever hear me say
But since you've been gone
I can breathe for the first time
Im so movin on
Yeah yeah
Thanks to you
Now I get
What I want
Since you've been gone
How can I put it? you put me on
I even fell for that stupid love song
Yeah yeah
Since you've been gone
How come I never hear you say
I just wanna be with you
I guess you never felt that way
But since you've been gone
I can breathe for the first time
Im so movin on
Yeah yeah
Thanks to you
Now I get
I get what I want
Since you've been gone
You had your chance you blew it
Out of sight, out of mind
Shut your mouth I just can't take it
Again and again and again and again
Since you've been gone (Since you've been gone)
I can breathe for the first time
Im so movin on
Yeah yeah
Thanks to you (thanks to you)
Now I get
I get what I want
I can breathe for the first time
Im so movin on
Yeah yeah
Thanks to you (thanks to you)
Now I get (I get)
You should know (you should know)
That I get
I get what I want
Since you've been gone
Since you've been gone
Since you've been gone
song performed by by Kelly Clarkson

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Since U Been Gone
Here's the thing
We started out friends
It was cool, but it was all pretend
Yeah, yeah, since you been gone
Dedicated, you took the time
Wasn't long till I called you mine
Yeah, yeah, since you been gone
And all you'd ever hear me say
Is how I picture me with you
That's all you'd ever hear me say
But since you been gone
I can breathe for the first time
I'm so movin' on, yeah yeah
Thanks to you, now I get what I want
Since you been gone
How can I put it, you put me on
I even fell for that stupid love song
Yeah, yeah, since you been gone
How come I'd never hear you say
I just wanna be with you
Guess you never felt that way
But since you been gone
I can breathe for the first time
I'm so movin' on, yeah, yeah
Thanks to you, now I get, I get what I want
Since you been gone
You had your chance, you blew it
Out of sight, out of mind
Shut your mouth, I just can't take it
Again and again and again and again
Since you been gone (since you been gone)
I can breathe for the first time
I'm so movin' on, yeah yeah
Thanks to you (thanks to you)
Now I get, I get what I want
I can breathe for the first time
I'm so movin' on, yeah yeah
Thanks to you (thanks to you)
Now I get (I get)
You should know (you should know) that I get
I get what I want
Since you been gone
Since you been gone
Since you been gone
song performed by by Kelly Clarkson

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Am a Roman Soldier
I am a Roman soldier.
I choke on the dust and peer ahead.
There are only more soldiers and more marching.
The sun gleams from shields slung over the backs of my comrades
and our swords clank at our sides.
Only three weeks into the Germania campaign
and the Senate still favors the Brutii.
Still, General Augustus favors blood,
and so we march.
I am a Roman soldier and I fight for Rome and for glory.
My javelins tangle and I stop to adjust them.
Their one-use tips were digging in my back.
Feet continue to march past and I smell sweat and dirt.
There are murmurs of conversation
About the last town we sacked.
About the screams and the blood,
and how the Armenians would rather fight
then submit to Roman power.
I am a Roman soldier.
I grew up in Croton, a large town South of Rome.
My mother weaved cloth for the governor,
the white and green of the Brutii.
They claim they first settled Rome,
Their ancestor is Brutus, survivor of Troy
relation of the great Romulus.
My father was a proud Brutii
and his eyes sparkled at the name.
“Brutus, ” he said, “started this family with honor
and with honor died.”
Then two weeks passed,
and he died at Carthage.
I am a Roman soldier and I fight for Rome.
I pretend to inspect my shield as legions pass.
A Centurion calls for water and boasts
“It’s not to drink but to wipe off barbarian blood! ”
We Romans are tough and mighty
and will rule the world with Strength and Honor
There’s a problem with a leather strap
and I listen to the pounding feet.
I saw blood splattered on many.
Dried and brown.
I am a Roman soldier.
My mother’s voice rings in my head,
“Come back with your shield, or upon it.”
I wonder if my blood will be dried
and brown on someone’s feet some day.
I shake off the thought and raise my head.
The wind stirs my hair.
With it comes the rumble of cavalry.
The General will meet with us tonight.
Tomorrow we lay siege.
He had said we will do great things,
and that neither cities nor hordes could stop us.
We will live in glory and there will be songs about us
sung through the ages.
I am a Roman soldier and I am sick of fighting.
The army surges ahead and I watch it.
Shimmering and moving with a rhythm.
Thousands of blades of grass tossed by the wind.
The cavalry comes neatly alongside;
loud voices ring out in greeting.
I sigh and heft my shield,
Don my helmet and check my sword.
I fight because I have to,
I fight because the world would not have it otherwise,
The world could not stand to have one less of me,
I am a Roman soldier.
poem by Josiah Wedgewood

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Ocean Size
Yeah ah, Yeah
Yeah ah, yeah
I never wanted
I never needed anything but you
Or any dreams come true
I never wished for
I never asked for all your little games
Or all your guilted shame
Now you're acting like you just don't care
Like you could find this one anywhere
It isn't fair
My life is an open book
My feelings and my meanings
Are oceansized
Long before i ever met you
Yeah, my feelings and my meanings
Are oceansized
Long before i ever met you
So now i'm asking to what had happened
To all the words you said
Well now you want me dead
If you were made for
The thing you stayed for
All that time ago
Now you're acting like you lost a friend
Like we were only pretend
Is this the end
Cuz my life is an open book
My feelings and my meanings
Are oceansized
Long before i ever met you
Yeah, my feelings and my meanings
Are oceansized
Long before i ever met you
(long before i ever met you)
Long before i ever met you
I wanted to take back my life
Cuz i gave it all to you
I just want to make it right
So i'm waiting on you
Yeah i'm waiting on you
My feelings and my meanings
Are oceansized
Long before i ever met you
Yeah, my feelings and my meanings
Are oceansized
Long before i ever met you
song performed by by Goldfinger

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Back To Rome
One day its the morning
Another day its the afternoon light
On day, baby, without warning
Well, I tend to think were going back to rome
Back to rome
We had a dream it was behemoth
Im so sorry that I didnt work out
And Im sorry about the visigoths
Well, I think its time that we go back to rome
Back to rome
Dont you wish that we could stay?
Were going back to rome
Life is so fine
Then it goes wrong
Wrong
You think its going to miss you but that sun bitch gon get you
Yeah, it goes wrong
Wrong
Sun bitch gon get you
I believed in the cupid
I thought Id kiss you for all my life
I guess Im just a little stupid
Now Im going back to rome
Back to rome
Now I just cant wait
Im going back to rome
Love is so high
Then it goes wrong
Wrong
You think its going to miss you but that sun bitch gon get you
Yeah, it goes wrong
Wrong
Sun bitch gon get you
song performed by by Frank Black

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When In Rome
When in Rome,
One should adjust to do...
Those activities that Romans choose.
It is not one's place,
To advocate...
What IS or IS NOT acceptable.
Or in poor taste.
When 'not' in Rome...
And that visit of condoning,
Has been left behind and alone...
There is no obligated need,
To continue to feed those traditions.
And 'when' one finds it comforting,
To do what one wishes in one's own home...
That's when it is best to profess and address one's beliefs.
With a feeling,
If one so desires...
To dismiss what is not suitable or fits.
In one's 'own' environment.
With no debate or argument to invite about this.
When 'not' in Rome.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah
I love you baby since we were at school
I didnt show it I was a fool
You were burning I was cold as ice
And baby now I realize
Oh yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
I gave you misery I gave you lies
I never hurt you, apologize
I love your lips I love your eyes
I love your breasts I love your thighs
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Now all I can do is hope and pray
That youll forgive me before its too late
Theres only one thing I can say to you
You know I love you you know its true
Oh yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
song performed by by Pogues

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist.
quote by Russell Baker

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Theif
I don't want to understand this horror
There's a weight in your eyes I can't admit
Everybody ends up here in bottles
But the name tag's the last thing you wanted
As the world explodes we fall out of it
And we can't let go because this
Will not go away
There's a house built out in space...
I can't see that thief that lives inside of your head
But I can be some courage at the side of your bed
I don't know what's happening and I can't pretend
But I can be your....
Someone help us understand who ordered
This disgusting arrangement with time and the end
I don't want to hear who walked on water
'Cause the hallways are empty, clocks tick
As the world implodes we fall into it
And we can't go home because this
Will not go away
There's a house built out in space...
I can't see that thief that lives inside of your head
But I can be some courage at the side of your bed
I don't know what's happening and I can't pretend
It's a long long getaway, it's a long long getaway
Make it home again, make it home again
It's a long long getaway, it's a long long getaway
I can't see that thief that lives inside of your head
But I can be some courage at the side of your bed
I don't know what's happening and I can't pretend
But I can be your....
And I can be your.....
It's a long long getaway
song performed by by Our Lady Peace

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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You'd Be Making a Lot More Money
Why don't you go somewhere else,
Where you can become more 'noticed'.
'Noticed?
Noticed for what? '
What it is that you do.
'I don't know what you mean by that,
However...
What makes you 'think' I am not noticed? '
You can't be.
Not here.
'Oh...
I see where you're going with this.
You mean 'noticed' in a way,
That celebrities and stars are noticed'
Yeah, yeah...
Exactly.
'So you can say you know me?
Is that it? '
NAW!
So 'you' can be happy!
'And...
I'm not happy? '
You can't be!
'Why? '
Because you live 'here'!
'OH...
So I can not be happy,
Doing exactly what I choose to do...
AND live here.
Is that it? '
People don't have respect,
For someone like you...
Here!
'And what makes you think,
I am not accustomed to being disrespected?
That has nothing to do with what it is I do.
Nor my choice to live here.
I love what I do.
I love where I live.
I love the people I come in contact with.
Why would I choose to go somewhere else?
I can expect to get disrespected.
AND...
Check it out!
That has helped me achieve my success!
And I couldn't afford to get that anywhere else,
But right here.
That may seem foolish to you!
But my mama didn't raise no fools! '
You'd be making a lot more money!
'To have you calling me every five minutes,
To borrow some?
No thanks! '
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Ive Got A Good Thing
(jerry ragavoy / mort shuman)
I got a good thing
I got a good thing
I got a good thing going
Take the sun and take the moon
And stars that shine so bright
All I need is my guy
And everythings all right
Everything about him thrills me
The way he looks at me just kills me
Hes got a way of getting to me
Every kiss just goes right through me
I got a good thing
You know I got a good thing, baby
I got a good thing going
Take the rainbow from the sky
Oh, I dont really care
I will have a pot of gold
As long as he is there
I never knew such sweet affection
And its all in my direction
If he left theres no mistaking
My poor heart would start to break and
I got a good thing
You know I got a good thing going
I got a good thing going, yeah
I got a good thing, yeah
You know I got a good thing going
You know I got a sweet thing baby
Everything is everything, baby
Everything is uptight, all right, out of sight
Yeah, I got a good thing going, yeah
You know I got a good thing
song performed by by Dusty Springfield

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Roman Gravemounds
By Rome's dim relics there walks a man,
Eyes bent; and he carries a basket and spade;
I guess what impels him to scrape and scan;
Yea, his dreams of that Empire long decayed.
'Vast was Rome,' he must muse, 'in the worlds regard,
Vast it looms there still, Vast it ever will be;'
And he stoops as to dig and unmine some shard
Left by those who are held in such memory.
But no; in his basket, see, he has brought
A little white furred thing, stiff of limb,
Whose life never won from the world a thought;
It is this, and not Rome, that is moving him.
And to make it a grave he has come to the spot,
And he delves in the ancient dead's long home;
Their fames, their achievements, the man knows not;
The furred thing is all to him - nothing Rome!
'Here say you that Caesar's warriors lie? -
But my little white cat was my only friend!
Could she but live, might the record die
Of Caesar, his legions, his aims, his end!'
Well, Rome's long rule here is oft and again
A theme for the sages of history,
And the small furred life was worth no one's pen;
Yet its mourner's mood has a charm for me.
poem by Thomas Hardy

Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Where a Roman Villa Stood, Above Freiburg
On alien ground, breathing an alien air,
A Roman stood, far from his ancient home,
And gazing, murmured,
'Ah, the hills are fair,
But not the hills of Rome!'
Descendant of a race to Romans-kin,
Where the old son of Empire stood, I stand.
The self-same rocks fold the same valley in,
Untouched of human hand.
Over another shines the self-same star,
Another heart with nameless longing fills,
Crying aloud, 'How beautiful they are,
But not our English hills!'
poem by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Are You There?
When I feel too far away
From where I want to be
Theres nothing left for me, yeah
When I feel too close to breathe
Like a baby cutting teeth
In you I find relief
cause when its more than I can take
I pushed and pulled to break
A sucker for a saint in your eyes
Criticism comes in waves
Numbering our days
But only you can save me
Is anybody even there
Who doesnt just pretend to care
This time I need to know - are you there?
Does anybody think they can
Begin to even understand
This time I need to know - are you there?
Hang on, hang on
I know, I know
Its the lie that we believe
A truth that we conceive
That lies inside of me
When I leave it all behind
Something hypnotized
The moment that its mine
Is anybody even there
Who doesnt just pretend to care
This time I need to know - are you there?
Does anybody think they can
Begin to even understand
This time I need to know - are you there?
Is anybody even there?
Who doesnt just pretend to care
This time I need to know - are you there?
Does anybody think they can
Begin to even understand
This time I need to know - are you there?
song performed by by Oleander

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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