Worthless Lessons

A stranger walks a long and ugly road
And it’s filled with hairspray and smiles
He babbled to himself about a road that’s paved in gold
And he calls this the epitome of man
And he said, Oooooooh, what have I done
To be such a useless man?
He says, Ooooooh, what have I done
To be such a worthless man?

A child passes by, holdin’ on her momma’s hand
Lookin’ upon this stranger, she says, Momma, who’s that man?
Momma says, Baby, you know it ain’t polite to stare
Well the child looked behind her, over her shoulder
Sees our hero stumble, watches as he falls over
Momma says, Baby, Hmph! Just pretend that he’s not there

The days carry over, the memory gonna melt away
When another human learns a worthless lesson today

Our hero sits alone, in an alley by some stairs
This child, she has grown, but never learned how to care
Them two paths, they’re gonna meet again
You see, Fate has played its card
See, the child ran away from home
But she was not yet fully grown
Had no money, so she found herself alone
In an alley, by some stairs

The days carry over, the memory gonna melt away
When another human learns a worthless lesson today

On desolation row, all you need is empathy
When you ain’t got nothing left to hold
You embrace one another’s tragedy
From there, you know up is the only way to go
And that child she remembered lookin’ over her shoulder
Now she realized she should have helped and not grown colder
It’s such a different story, when you’re
When you’re the one who’s down

The days carry over, the memory gonna melt away
When another human learns a worthless lesson today
Another human learns a meaningless lesson today