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Evidence Lyrics
Frightened of the shadow on the wall
I think it looks a bit too much like me
Search my life for evidence of truth
Can you hear me
Can you hear me now
Terrified my tongue will now betray
All the lies that I'd been taught to say
Searched your eyes for evidence of love
Can you hear me
Can you hear me now
(CHORUS):
Can you hear the child's tears
Whose paradise was taken from his hands
Can you hold him in your arms
And tell him that you'll try to understand
When there's no way in hell you can
Can you hear me
Can you hear me now
Afraid to break the silence in the room
Disbelieving faces stare me down
Search the world for evidence of faith
Can you hear me
Can you hear me now
(CHORUS)
The first verse is the abusee’s fear that they were somehow responsible for their abuse, that they could have, or should have fought or fought harder. “The search…for truth,” to know which is true and doubting which is. The refrain, “Can you hear me…?” keeps asking the world if they finally believe.
The second verse is the abusee’s fear that they may accidently say what happened to them and forget to lie, and asks if they are loved by those who should have prevented the abuse.
The third verse, often mistaken for a chorus, speaks to the real inability to understand what the victim of child abuse experienced and to dismiss that experience as exaggerated or overblown.
This fourth verse addresses peoples’ inability to believe that the abuse a child suffered actually happened or that it was blown out or proportion, “Uncle Bob really didn’t mean to put his finger there,” “The spankings you got weren’t really that bad; we all got them.” The third line asks if they’re finally believed.
The fifth verse, again, often mistaken as the chorus of the third verse, repeats the third verse except referring to a girl.
The last verse asks the abuser if they are now afraid of the abused now that the world knows who and what they are.