Like a bird on a wire

Like a drunk in some midnight choir

I have tried in my way to be free

Like a worm on the hook

Like a knight bent down some old-fashioned book

It was the shape, the shape of our love twisted me

If I, if I have been unkind

I hope you can, I hope you can just let it all go by, go by

And if I, if I have been untrue

It's just that I thought a lover had to be some kind of liar too

Like a baby, stillborn

Like a beast with his horn

I have torn everyone who reached out for me

But I swear by this song

And by all that I have done wrong

I will make it all up to thee

I saw a beggar, he was leaning on his wooden crutch

He said to me, "Come on now, you must not ask for so much", yeah

And another pretty woman, she was leaning in her darkened door

She cried out to me, "Come on now, why don't you ask

Why don't you ask for just a little more, just a little more?"

Like a bird on the wire

Like a drunk in some old midnight choir

I have tried in my way to be free