Perfect Songs - It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Last night, the country demonstrated just how divided and seemingly hopeless we are. At least half the country voted against their own self interests for a guy that cares about only himself. We can continue to tell our kids that hard work, empathy, respect and acceptance are values to live up to - that these are the true path to success - but now, more than ever, the opposite has been demonstrated on a large scale. This is not about disagreements in policy or anything so quaint. My feelings on this are way too complex to put into words. At least not my own words.

This is not just one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs, but over the last 10 or so years, whenever the shit's hit the fan on a global scale, "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" is the one I always go back to. This morning on the way to work, I played it on repeat the whole way. It's both cynical and hopeful and ultimately realistic. It's prophetic and comforting in it's acceptance of disillusion with, well, everything, while at the same time suggesting, ever so slightly, that the way forward is in the small, day to day living of life (and life, only). Anyway, here are the entire lyrics and may we all find something in it to tell our kids.

It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

by Bob Dylan

 Darkness at the break of noon

 Shadows even the silver spoon

 The handmade blade, the child’s balloon

 Eclipses both the sun and moon

 To understand you know too soon

 There is no sense in trying

 Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn

 Suicide remarks are torn

 From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn

 Plays wasted words, proves to warn

 That he not busy being born is busy dying

 Temptation’s page flies out the door

 You follow, find yourself at war

 Watch waterfalls of pity roar

 You feel to moan but unlike before

 You discover that you’d just be one more

 Person crying

 So don’t fear if you hear

 A foreign sound to your ear

 It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing

 As some warn victory, some downfall

 Private reasons great or small

 Can be seen in the eyes of those that call

 To make all that should be killed to crawl

 While others say don’t hate nothing at all

 Except hatred

 Disillusioned words like bullets bark

 As human gods aim for their mark

 Make everything from toy guns that spark

 To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark

 It’s easy to see without looking too far

 That not much is really sacred

 While preachers preach of evil fates

 Teachers teach that knowledge waits

 Can lead to hundred-dollar plates

 Goodness hides behind its gates

 But even the president of the United States

 Sometimes must have to stand naked

 An’ though the rules of the road have been lodged

 It’s only people’s games that you got to dodge

 And it’s alright, Ma, I can make it

 Advertising signs they con

 You into thinking you’re the one

 That can do what’s never been done

 That can win what’s never been won

 Meantime life outside goes on

 All around you

 You lose yourself, you reappear

 You suddenly find you got nothing to fear

 Alone you stand with nobody near

 When a trembling distant voice, unclear

 Startles your sleeping ears to hear

 That somebody thinks they really found you

 A question in your nerves is lit

 Yet you know there is no answer fit

 To satisfy, insure you not to quit

 To keep it in your mind and not forget

 That it is not he or she or them or it

 That you belong to

 Although the masters make the rules

 For the wise men and the fools

 I got nothing, Ma, to live up to

 For them that must obey authority

 That they do not respect in any degree

 Who despise their jobs, their destinies

 Speak jealously of them that are free

 Cultivate their flowers to be

 Nothing more than something they invest in

 While some on principles baptized

 To strict party platform ties

 Social clubs in drag disguise

 Outsiders they can freely criticize

 Tell nothing except who to idolize

 And then say God bless him

 While one who sings with his tongue on fire

 Gargles in the rat race choir

 Bent out of shape from society’s pliers

 Cares not to come up any higher

 But rather get you down in the hole

 That he’s in

 But I mean no harm nor put fault

 On anyone that lives in a vault

 But it’s alright, Ma, if I can’t please him

 Old lady judges watch people in pairs

 Limited in sex, they dare

 To push fake morals, insult and stare

 While money doesn’t talk, it swears

 Obscenity, who really cares

 Propaganda, all is phony

 While them that defend what they cannot see

 With a killer’s pride, security

 It blows the minds most bitterly

 For them that think death’s honesty

 Won’t fall upon them naturally

 Life sometimes must get lonely

 My eyes collide head-on with stuffed

 Graveyards, false gods, I scuff

 At pettiness which plays so rough

 Walk upside-down inside handcuffs

 Kick my legs to crash it off

 Say okay, I have had enough, what else can you show me?

 And if my thought-dreams could be seen

 They’d probably put my head in a guillotine

 But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only