Your Pain  

© 2001, 2002 Tracy Comer
For my mother, Becky Geddie Rowe (1937-1992)

[Key: A Tracy plays in standard tuning, no capo]

Time, it moves in only one direction
But in defiance we can turn and face the rear
And watch the things we love and hate and fear grow fainter
Shrinking silhouettes on the horizon

In vain I clutch at fading recollections
And try to cast them into some new form
Measuring against some unreal norm
Silently, I drown in the abyss of this obsession
Then truth screams out from these memories -- the story wasn't only about me

But I could not see your pain…the mirror blocked my view
And anger and frustration dug the chasm that divided me and you
And I blamed the bottle, and I blamed the pills
But I never did consider that the need for them arose from wounds that wouldn't heal

To what degree could you have fought the forces
That pushed and pulled and pried into your mind
And led you onto paths no one should find
To stumble…accumulating sorrows and remorses
And just what was the greater tragedy…death or life alone in misery?

But I could not see your pain…the mirror blocked my view
And anger and frustration dug the chasm that divided me and you
And I blamed the bottle, and I blamed the pills
But I never did consider that the need for them arose from wounds that wouldn't heal