bird on the wire

"..Till the bird on the wire flies me back to you.."

I was listening to Bon Jovi's Bed of Roses a few minutes ago when suddenly the lyric reminds me to one of my all-time favourite song: "Bird on a wire", by Leonard Cohen. Some could say that this is a song to "slit your wrist by", as one of the more famous tags given to Cohen's works. Yet to me this song is more about redemption. At least, when trapped in the melancholy of thinking on what might (or should) have been, it's nice to know that the way out can actually be started simply by making a resolution to amend.


Like a bird on the wire,
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Like a worm on a hook,
Like a knight from some old fashioned book
I have saved all my ribbons for thee.
If I, if I have been unkind,
I hope that you can just let it go by.
If I, if I have been untrue
I hope you know it was never to you.

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 leaning on his wooden crutch,
He said to me, "You must not ask for so much."
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
She cried to me, "Hey, why not ask for more?"

Oh like a bird on the wire,
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free