Can You Hear Me Now

(Emmylou Marris/Malcolm Burn)
 O the walls are closin' in
 I can feel it in my bones
 Like water risin' up to my chin
 Another long night to be alone.
 I could go out on the town
 Talk too much and laugh too loud
 If I'm already on my way down
 I might as well just work the crowd.
 Can you hear me now?
 Oh, the stories I could tell
 Sometimes I really hit my stride
 We make our own Heaven and our own Hell
 Tryin' to get across to the other side.
 But everyday ends up the same
 One step up, two steps back
 Like some old silent movie frame
 Zoom in close, then fade to black.
 Can you hear me now?
 How did the load get to be so heavy
 I used to wear my troubie like a crown
 A bad flood's poundin' on the levee
 And l'm gonna need some help
 To hold my ground.
 But I'm sinkin' like a stone
 To where in solitude this life I'll spend
 In the coldest place I've ever known
 I'm here just waitin' until the end.
 I send up my S.O.S.
 A message in a bottle set out to sea
 It just reads "Soul in distress"
 But nobody ever got back to me.
 Can you hear me now?...