The Whirligig of Time

I think I saved my own life tonight
Either that or I just blew it
I saw this window of oppotunity
I thought that I'd just waltz right through it
But there wasn't any window
And to my great disbelief
It was an optical illusion
I'm just glad I looked before I leaped.

Sometimes situations
Are not what they seem
Life doesn't always turn out
Like it does inside our dreams
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Often go astray
Sometimes you win
Sometimes you pay.

chorus:
And we're tumbling, stumbling, hurtling
Through this whirligig of time
There doesn't seem to be any reason or any rhyme
The continuum of space and time
Continues and endures
In spite of all this hatred
For which it seems there are no cures.

Now if Time was running backwards
Would dreams be memories?
If Fate was any kinder
Would it still be so two-faced?
Sometimes it saves us
Sometimes it creeps
Inside our skulls
And haunts us in our sleep.

Common sense, intelligence,
They don't seem to count much anymore
Mendacity, imbecility
And bilge are everywhere
Agents of destruction,
Agents of greed,
Planting seeds of poison
With their words and with their deeds.

chorus:

The wagon wheels are busted
The horses are all lame
The crops are being tampered with
And even bees cannot sustain
Things fall apart
The center cannot hold
Most everything that's ever been
Has been bought and sold.

I don't know if I saved my life
I didn't know which way to turn
But I'm still here breathing
Spinning 'round this Sun that burns
And if a song emerges
Even just a simple tune
It's just my way of trying
To keep on doing what I'm doing.

words and music - Phil Dollard