Parameters Lyrics
And not once do you come home
To find a man sitting in your bedroom
That is
A man you don't know
Who came a long way to deliver one very specific message:
Lock your back door, you idiot
However invincible you imagine yourself to be
You are wrong
And you loosen the momentum of teenage nightmares
Your breasts hang like a woman's
And you don't jump at shadows anymore
Instead you may simply pause to admire
Those that move with the grace of trees
Dancing past streetlights
And you walk through your house without turning on lamps
Sure of the angle from door to table
From table to staircase
Sure of the number of steps
Seven to the landing
Two to turn right
Then seven more
Sure you will stroll serenely on the moving walkway of memory
Across your bedroom
And collapse with a sigh onto your bed
Shoes falling
Thunk thunk
Onto the floor
And there will be no strange man
Suddenly all that time sitting there
Sitting there on what must be the prize chair
In your collection of uncomfortable chairs
With a wild look in his eyes
And hands that you cannot see
Holding what?
You do not know
That you are painfully slow to adjust
If only because
Yours is not that genre of story
Still and again, life cannot muster the stuff of movies
No bullets shattering glass
Instead fear sits patiently
Fear almost smiles when you finally see him
Though you have kept him waiting for thirty-three years
And now he has let himself in
And he has brought you fistfuls of teenage nightmares
Though you think you see, in your naivete
That he is empty handed
And this brings you great relief
At the time
Even after you've long since gotten used to the parameters
They can all change
While you're out one night having a drink with a friend
Some big hand may be turning a big dial
Switching channels on your dreams
Until you find yourself lost in them
And watching your daily life with the sound off
And of course having cautiously turned down the flame under your eyes
There are more shadows around everything
Your vision a dim flashlight that you have to shake all the way to the outhouse
Your solitude elevating itself like the spirit of the dead
Presiding over your supposed repose
Not really sleep at all
Just a sleeping position and a series of suspicious sounds
A clanking pipe
A creaking branch
The footfalls of a cat
All of this and maybe
The swish of the soft leather of your intruder's coat
As you walk him step by step back to the door
Having talked him down off the ledge of a very bad idea
Soft leather, big feet, almond eyes
The kinds of details the police officer would ask for later
With his clipboard
And his pistol
In your hallway
I really like this and I agree that it's an examination of fear. I always felt that it was a response to a home invasion, although I'm taking it very literally I feel and it could be a giant metaphor just as easily. I feel like she was robbed and she was so used to everything being right and hers, feeling safe at home, and afterwards her perception of safety is very shaken.
wow im the first!! this song sends me chills..
"you don't jump at shadows anymore instead you may simple pause to admire those that move with the grace of trees dancing past streetlights and you walk through your house without turning on lamps sure of the angle from door to table from table to staircase "
rape is a davastation, and she captured that perfectly
I get that it's about rape, but what do these 2 lines mean? "as you walk him step by step back to the door having talked him down off the ledge of a very bad idea"...
Say the main character in the song has already been raped by her intruder, why would she walk him back to the door? And what bad idea is being talked about here? am i missing something?
i'm not sure... maybe its about walking the memory away.. dont let it return...? i'm really not sure, you got me.
I don't really get rape out of this...the "strange man" seems to represent a sudden realization that the speaker has lost her way...maybe she had great hopes and lots of passion when she was young; now she is getting older and is isolated and lonely and realizes that somewhere along the way someone "turned the channels" on her dreams...maybe the man is a sense of dread that looms over her that she decides to ignore...he seems to be more metaphorical, at any rate...
i don't get the rape thing either. every time i listen to it i just think about a mysterious thing that looms over her, something that was there when she was younger. but faded with time and she forgot about. that's just my insight
To me, parameters is an examination of fear, and how its onset can change the way you look at things. I don't think the incident with the strange man is really the point of the poem; instead, what jumps out at me is the author's change of mindset before and after the fearful incident.
Beforehand, the author had moved beyond fear, having learned to loosen the momentum of her teenage nightmares; and instead of being afraid of shadows, she learned to admire their beauty (or look at them differently). Also, she mentions that before the incident, she essentially moved through life in a care-free sort of way (without fear): surely floating serenely on the moving walkway of memory without the need to look where she is going or even over her shoulder
Then the incident brought her fistfuls of teenage nightmares. The nightmares that she had previously loosened the momentum of (let go of) now have to be held onto again. At this point, she had to take them with her into new life situations, and she noticed how they changed her outlook: there are now more shadows around everything and her vision becomes a dim flashlight that she has shake all the way to the outhouse (she is forced to look around nervously out of fear); and instead of sleeping, she lies awake in a sleeping position, because now the series of suspicious sounds are something to be feared (sounds that she might not have noticed beforehand).
The amount of imagery compacted into these words is simply amazing. I could go on about every little thing I love about this poem, but i think I have written enough. Keep writing Ani.
I don't believe this song is about rape at all...I remember reading that it actually happened - Ani came home to find some guy sitting in her house.
pixidrizzl is right, it was about a real incident where Ani had an intruder.
I LOVE the last line, 'With his clipboard and his pistol, in your hallway.' It's a different scenario - you've just had an intruder and you invite someone in with a gun, because they're a police officer. It's ironic.
This is my interpretation/analysis on what its about tho I could b wrong xD
the author was talking about how she was so secure of everything, such as her parameters, now than before in her teenage years. But now the parameters have changed bcuz an intruder has altered them by invading her home. This brought back her fear from her youth. Now she is terrified, insecure & more isolated. She also associates to her intruder with Fear. "instead fear sits patiently fear almost smiles when you see him"
I don't think it could be rape bcuz of the final lines:
"maybe the swish of the soft leather of your intruders coat as you walk him step by step back to the door having talked him down off the ledge of a very bad idea" I don't think that would happen after rape lol... That is what I do not understand.