old man in a rocking chair
you wake up, you've been living alone
after all these years
surrounded by these shards of mirrors
and how'd it get so quiet here,
you wonder, where did everyone go?

you tried so hard to make people remember you for something you were not
and if they so remember you then something else will certainly get forgotten

life is for the living
i've heard tell that it is why we are young
in the morning sun
you take every year as it comes
but when your life is over
all those years fold up like an accordion
they collapse just like a broken lung

now i've only got one organ left and this old bag of bones it is failing me
i try to tell people that i'm dying only they don't believe me
they say we're all dying, that we're all dying
but if you are dying, why aren't you scared?
why aren't you scared
like i'm scared?

i read somewhere that when you face eternity
you face it alone
not matter what you thought
or what you had
or you had not
unless you put yourself in god
but tell me god o where did you go?

every bitter night into an empty room i plead my case
every night i pray that in the morning when i wake
i'll be in a familiar place and find that i'm recovered and i'm sane
and i'll remember everything
i'll remember what i was like before that bug bit me

and when i have my childhood back
i'll tear every page out of my book
and place them in an urn
strike a match and watch them burn
then i'll hold the front cover
against the back cover and look
you'll see
eternity will smile on me

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The Sickness Unto Death song meanings

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Song Meaning
In response to somemexican, this song is kind of, in a way, fighting with depression. He, as a child, had lyme disease and nearly died. He lived, thanks to modern medicine, but feels his time is borrowed. So most of the songs on this album are about how we closely toe the line between life and death. In this song in particular, he explores the idea of someone who wastes their entire life doing nothing, and then they realize that their life is wasted (old man in a rocking chair, you wake up, you've been living alone). The shards of mirrors are referring to never knowing who you are. Going through your entire life without looking at yourself and trying to understand what you live for. Along with this whole song being about the process of dying in general, it turns more personal at the end when he talks about burning his childhood memories. Kyle felt he never had a childhood because he spent that time in sickness. And then the ending refrain, "Eternity will smile on me". This pays homeage to the idea that when you die, you will exist in an eternal happiness, regardless of the pain you suffered through when you lived. A moving, beautiful song. I have to give credit to Kyle Morton for being able to write incredibly personal and tender songs that can relate to most anyone who hears them.

In response to somemexican, this song is kind of, in a way, fighting with depression. He, as a child, had lyme disease and nearly died. He lived, thanks to modern medicine, but feels his time is borrowed. So most of the songs on this album are about how we closely toe the line between life and death. In this song in particular, he explores the idea of someone who wastes their entire life doing nothing, and then they realize that their life is wasted (old man in a rocking chair, you wake up, you've been living alone). The shards of mirrors are referring to never knowing who you are. Going through your entire life without looking at yourself and trying to understand what you live for. Along with this whole song being about the process of dying in general, it turns more personal at the end when he talks about burning his childhood memories. Kyle felt he never had a childhood because he spent that time in sickness. And then the ending refrain, "Eternity will smile on me". This pays homeage to the idea that when you die, you will exist in an eternal happiness, regardless of the pain you suffered through when you lived. A moving, beautiful song. I have to give credit to Kyle Morton for being able to write incredibly personal and tender songs that can relate to most anyone who hears them.

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milesawayon November 19, 2012 Link
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