(Emmylou Marris/Malcolm Burn)

O the walls are closin' in
I can feel it in my bones
Like water risin' up to my chin
Another long night to be alone.

I could go out on the town
Talk too much and laugh too loud
If I'm already on my way down
I might as well just work the crowd.

Can you hear me now?
Oh, the stories I could tell
Sometimes I really hit my stride
We make our own Heaven and our own Hell
Tryin' to get across to the other side.

But everyday ends up the same
One step up, two steps back
Like some old silent movie frameZoom in close, then fade to black.

Can you hear me now?

How did the load get to be so heavy
I used to wear my troubie like a crownA bad flood's poundin' on the levee
And l'm gonna need some help
To hold my ground.

But I'm sinkin' like a stone
To where in solitude this life I'll spend
In the coldest place I've ever known
I'm here just waitin' until the end.

I send up my S.O.S.
A message in a bottle set out to sea
It just reads "Soul in distress"
But nobody ever got back to me.

Can you hear me now?...