There's a man holding a megaphone
He must have been the voice of God
The bystanders claimed they saw angels
Flying up and down the block
Well, they must have been attached to wires
I've seen one laying in the lawn with a broken arm
So I called 911
Well, that's one less founded opinion
One more cause for a dispute
So the street filled like a basin
Up with cameras and their crews
And they washed away the rumors
Leaving just the concrete truth
It was a spectacle
No, I, I mean a miracle
So I fell like a girl from a balance beam
A gymnasium of eyes, all are holding on to me
I lifted one foot to cross the other and I felt myself slipping
It was a small mistake
Sometimes that's all it takes

Now I'm staring at my wrist
Hoping that the timing is right
When the planets will align
There will be no planets to align
Just the carcass of the sun
With little painted marbles
Spinning senseless through an endless black sky

And so it never started
And it will never stop
Just like I am and you are

It was in a foreign hotel bathtub
I baptized myself in change
And one by one, I drowned all of the people I had been
And I emerged to find the parallels were fewer
I was cleansed
I looked in the mirror and someone new was there
But I was as helpless as a chess piece
When I was lifted up by someone's hand
And delivered from the corner
My enemies had got me in
But in all of my salvation I still felt imprisoned inside
That holding cell that is myself
So I wait for the day when I'll hear the key
As it turns in the lock and the guard will say to me
"Oh, my patient prisoner, you have waited for this day and finally
You are free, you are free, you are freezing"

Now I'm staring at the sun
Waiting for it to explode
Because a day is gonna come
Don't know when, but it will come
And we'll finally know the way out of here

And I'll throw away this wrinkled map
And my chart of stars and compass, cracked
And I'll climb that tree all wet with sap
To avoid the hungry beasts below
I'll cut out my lover's tongue and sing
Of a graveyard grey and a garden green
And we won't have to worry no more
No, we won't have to wonder again
About how this song or story ends
About how this song and story will end


Lyrics submitted by iddonuk

From a Balance Beam Lyrics as written by Conor Oberst

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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From a Balance Beam song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    To me this song is about waiting for death. It was put directly at the end of "Waste of Paint" because that song has him desiring to "believe in (his) soul" or God and this one is about a situation where an angel falls on the earth and he is shown that God exists. Conor wants this to happen so he'll know that there's a meaning or truth to this life and although he doesn't expect it, he's still desiring to die so he can find out and get free. He basically is saying that religion is not enough to prove God and it's gonna take death (a good thing) to make sure.

    XianSnakeon July 24, 2005   Link

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