things happen

They lecture us about chemicals
and the consequences of their spills.
They show us slide shows that bore
the high school kids that ignore,
and they say, "These things can happen,"
but they never happen to me.

I've heard it said that smoke kills cells,
and that Marlboro and Camel would never tell.
Big tobacco, they say, would never call it,
they just shove my Hamiltons in their wallet.
They say, "These things will happen,"
but they haven't happened to me.

They say stealing music is a crime,
that one day these thieves could be passing the time
in a jail cell, crying on the floor
after the police have broken down their doors.
They'll confiscate the hard drives and stuff
and the thieves will cry until the cops have heard enough.
But if it happens to me, all I’m worried about
is them finding out I like Fall Out Boy even after they sold out.

They say my logic is the Pacific, full of faults,
that one day I'll be charged with assault,
that even the careful ones get caught
because they do what they not ought.
They say, "These things do happen,"
but they never happen to me.

A prisoner of cancer? Not in this life.
I'm going to die old and ripe.
I behave just how I "shouldn't behave."
I'm trying to coax my organs to cave.
I'm seventeen and I'm feeling old
for listening to what I'm told, and
if I keep going this way it'll happen, they say,
but I know it won't happen to me.

I'm not a murderer, you see.
I've broken no laws, no seriously.
I just try to live quietly
in the gutter with the rest of humanity
who say I'm good at heart but things will happen,
yet they don't happen to me.
And of course those bars, the literal prison
full of all the unforgiven,
who grunt and sweat the literal way,
who anguish at night and toil by day,
who's guilt is cross hanging from their necks,
who are herded like ass, it's what you'd expect
it's happened to them quite obviously,
but I know it won't happen to me.

School has taught me quite a lot
about black lung and Camelot
about the RIAA and "wag the dog,"
and that hot and cold air form a fog
and that I could be a rich one too--
a winner! with a yacht and pool.
But they've failed to mention the kids
who just couldn't stand any of it
the real life Hamlet's, the "not to be"s--
They never said that this would happen
but it's happening to me.

-K.E.H.

Song of the Moment:
The Beta Band - Dry the Rain
if there's something inside that you wanna say you can say it out loud; it'll be okay. i will be your light. i will be your light