My Life As A Cardboard Box

Build it up, burn it down
Tear it up piece by piece

For burned and torn is how I've always felt

 

Leave me out in the rain and I just might drown -- leave it out in the rain and it'll melt

 

Cut it up to match my cuts, my scrapes, my bruises, and my scars

Break it down with bricks and rocks

 

Or simply throw it in the trash, in any case you have my life as a cardboard box

 

I started off a goner, cheating death inside the womb

And only half-alive at birth

But I hide my bitter soul and the anger in my heart behind a shield of merriness and mirth

 

I play just like a winner though I know I'll always lose

But at least I'm not just sitting on the bench

 

In the war with what's within me and the war with what surrounds me

You'll never find me outside of the trench

 

So build it up, burn it down

Tear it up piece by piece

For burned and torn is how I've always felt

 

Leave me out in the rain and I just might drown -- leave it out in the rain and it'll melt

 

Cut it up to match my cuts, my scrapes, my bruises, and my scars

Break it down with bricks and rocks

 

Or simply throw it in the trash, in any case you have my life as a cardboard box

 

I live like I'm dying, and for this life I'd gladly die

But there's too much I don't want to do without

 

But the lonely, desperate figure lurking quietly in the shadows has no sex appeal, no glamor, and no clout

 

Still I laugh as if it's funny, being denied and deprived

To be empty like a hollow paper square

 

But my corrugated sides are tough enough to stand the pressure

'Til the weight and volume prove too much to bear

So build it up, burn it down

Tear it up piece by piece

For burned and torn is how I've always felt

 

Leave me out in the rain and I just might drown -- leave it out in the rain and it'll melt

 

Cut it up to match my cuts, my scrapes, my bruises, and my scars

Break it down with bricks and rocks

 

Or simply throw it in the trash, in any case you have my life as a cardboard box