(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

O the stories I could teil
Sometimes I really hit my stride
We make our own Heaven and our own Heil
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