Blue Skies
My Mother-in-law, who was also addicted to Vicodin, said something to me just before she sought treatment that inspired this song. She said she was looking at people passing by as she was driving in her car and thought "They aren't wondering how they're going to get their fix today." I imagined me as an addict standing across the street from my sober self, marveling at this observation.
For those who've never suffered addiction the poison feels like life itself. The jaws seem securely clamped around you. Escape impossible. Until the day I was delivered, which came as mysteriously as the day the monkey climbed on my back.
The substance, and the romantic world in which it resides. must be sacrificed for real life to begin. This is what we have to lose in order to save ourselves.
There's a man over there and he's a walkin'
Watchin' the world go by
He ain't done much talkin'
He's just livin' under clear blue skies
Looks like a guy with a family
Maybe babies, a beautiful wife
Now he turns and looks right through me
Like he knows I got no life
He ain't one of them worried
Where his fix will come today
And maybe I could be just like him
If someone would show me the way
Show me the way
Another night of hunger
Another night to crave
One more night of holding hands
With a man I know's a slave
You can't fill an endless well
You're just pissing in the wind
Why try to survive this day
Just to crawl back and do it again?
No blue skies are waiting
The night'll just fade to grey
And I ain't gonna find that state of mind
That leads to my escape
Show me my escape
Standing by my window
Staring at the sea
Thinking back on all I was
And all I came to be
I didn't punch my ticket
Or conjur any clarity
But one time I was willing
Cause I missed my sanity
I traded away what was left of me
Fell into a state of grace
It all comes down to what you'll lose
And what you come to save
It all comes down to what you lose
And what you come to save