Darkness at the break of noon   Shadows even, a silver spoon   The handmade blade, the child's balloon   Eclipses both the sun and moon   To understand you know too soon   There's no sense in trying      Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn   Suicide remarks are torn   From the fool's gold mouthpiece   Plays wasted words   They prove to warn   That he not busy being born   Is he who's busy dying      Temptation's page flies out the door   You follow, find yourself at war   Watch waterfalls of pity roar   You feel to moan but unlike before   You discover   That you'd just be   One more person crying      So don't fear if you hear   A foreign sound to your ear   And it's alright, Ma,   (It's alright, Ma)   And it's alright, Ma,   (It's alright, Ma)   I'm only, I'm only   I'm only saying      As some warn victory, some downfall   Private reasons great or small   Can be seen in the eyes that kill to crawl   While others say don't hate nothing at all   All except hatred   All except hatred      Disillusioned words, bullets bark   Human gods aim for their mark   Make everything from toy guns that spark   To flesh-coloured Christs that glow in the dark   It's easy to see without looking too far   That not much   Is really sacred      While preachers preach of evil fates   Teachers teach that knowledge waits   Can lead to hundred-dollar plates   'Cause goodness hides behind its gates   But sometimes even the president of the United States   Sometimes must have   To stand naked.      And though the rules of the road have been lodged   It's only people's games that you've got to dodge   And it's alright   (It's alright, Ma)   And it's alright   (It's alright, Ma)   I can, I can, I can, I can make it   I can make it      Advertising signs, they con you   Into thinking you're the one   That can do what's never been done   That can win what's never been won   Meantime life outside goes on   All around you      You lose yourself, you reappear   You suddenly find you got nothing to fear   Alone you stand with nobody near   When a trembling distant voice, unclear   Startles your sleeping ears to hear   That somebody thinks   They've really found you      A question in your nerves is lit   You know there is no answer fit to satisfy   Insure you not to quit   To keep it in your mind and not forget   That he nor she nor them or it   I said he nor she nor them or it   That you belong to   Ah, who belongs to who?      Although the masters make the rules   For the wise men and the fool   It's alright, Ma   (It's alright, Ma)   I got nothing, Ma   (I got nothing, Ma)   To live up to   (To live up to)      Them that must obey authority   They do not respect in any degree   Despise their jobs, their destinies   Speak jealously of them that are free   Cares not to come up any higher   Than something they invest in.      While some on principles baptised   To strict party platform ties   Social clubs in drag disguise   Outsiders they can freely criticize   Should you, who have you been idolizing?   I said, should you, who have you been idolizing?   And I say God bless him      While one who sings with his tongue on fire   Gargles in the rat race choir   Bent out of shape from society's pliers   Cares not to come up any higher   But rather get you down in the hole   That he's in      But I mean no harm nor put fault   On anyone that lives in a vault   But it's alright, Ma   (It's alright, Ma)   I said, it's alright, Ma   (It's alright, Ma)   If I can't please him.      Old ladies and judges, people in pairs   Limited in sex, they dare   To push fake morals, insult and stare   While money doesn't talk, it swears   Obscenities, who really cares?   Propaganda, all is phoney      While them that defend what they cannot see   A killer's pride, security   It blows the minds most bitterly   For them that think death's honesty   Won't fall upon them naturally   Life sometimes   Must get lonely      My eyes collide head-on with stuffed    At false graveyards   And false gods, I scuff   At pettiness that plays so rough   I walk upside-down inside handcuffs   Kick my legs to crash it off   Say okay, I have had enough   What else can you show me?      And if my thought-dreams could be seen   They'd probably put my head    In a mother-fucking guillotine   And it's alright, Ma   (It's alright, Ma)   And it's alright, Ma   (It's alright, Ma)   That's life, and life only   That's life, and life only