You Don't Get To Choose Your Side

from Ismene by Cincinnati Time Store

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lyrics

i saw you through a thick fog
on the footpath and quickened my jog:
what brings you back after all these years?

you dropped out when the money ran dry
and all of your courage and cunning combined
couldn't pay rent, so it's back to the basement

& i broke down on christmas
everybody's feelin' it these days)
so i went back to work
that's where i saw the bomb in the briefcase

and i thought, well,
if i tell they'll have my hide:
you don't get to choose your side.

our old haunts are all vacant lots
the bookstore sold, the thai restaurant went under,
james never made it out of trouble

got his dreams dashed in a big white room
got his head bashed in by the midnight crew
and the co-pay never seemed to come through

and i got beat up in a frisch's
everybody who married is using
was this supposed to be easy?
maybe we've just got a talent for losing.

when the votes are cast, cuts scabbed,
and the eyes have dried,
you don't get to choose your side

but you can always change your mind,
though you can't rearrange its wires.
and we drank wine, on the old bench, just like old times.
i don't want to spend my whole life falling through the fire

the ice thaws, the burning will stop,
but the lukewarm just have to go back to the top
and start over
over again

suburbs ferment. city tensions come to a boil
what's thrown up must come down
what's buried will leech into the soil

every step feels locked
every hand feels like it's tied:
you don't get to choose your side.
you don't get to choose your side.

credits

from Ismene, released December 29, 2015

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