Patterns

[Verse 1] The night sets softly With the hush of falling leaves Casting shivering shadows On the houses through the trees And the light from a streetlamp Paints a shadow on my wall Like the pieces of a puzzle Or a child's uneven scrawl [Chorus 1] Up a narrow flight of stairs In a narrow little room As I lie upon my bed In the early-evening gloom Impaled on my wall My eyes can dimly see The pattern of my life And the puzzle that is me [Chorus 2] From the moment of my birth To the instant of my death There are patterns I must follow Just as I must breathe each breath Like a rat in a maze The path before me lies And the pattern never alters Until the rat dies [Chorus 3] The path before me lies And the pattern never alters And the pattern still remains On the wall where darkness fell And it's fitting that it should For, in darkness, I must dwell Like a rat in a maze [Chorus 1] Up a narrow flight of stairs In a narrow little room As I lie upon my bed In the early-evening gloom Impaled on my wall My eyes can dimly see The pattern of my life And the puzzle that is me [Outro] Like the color of my skin And the day that I grow old My life is made of patterns That can scarcely be controlled