The Unborn (Acoustic session)

Small hands that didn't ask to hold This ticket to a world so cold Woke to the sound of a slamming door A love that was, but is no more Watched the light in their eyes go dim A kingdom lost on a childish whim Just a boy with a question mark Standing silent in the dark Oh, the circus came to town With a painted smile and a thunderous sound They tried to teach me how to wear the chain To smile and nod and feel the pain But the child I was still asks the sky "Why was I born beneath this sky?" Then to a prison called a school They tried to shape me as their tool To make me fit a little square To kill the dream and plant despair They laughed because I walked alone A different drum, a softer tone I learned my skin was not the right In their harsh and blinding light Oh, the circus came to town With a painted smile and a thunderous sound They tried to teach me how to wear the chain To smile and nod and feel the pain But the child I was still asks the sky "Why was I born beneath this sky?" Then came the hunger for a hand to hold A story different from the one they told But the mirror showed a face of flaws A boy who'd learned to hide because The ghosts of home were in my veins The echo of their old refrains So I found ghosts of my own to keep In a hazy, numb and dreamless sleep The world then said it's time to climb To sell your soul a dime at a time To wear the mask and play the game For fortune, status, and for fame To step upon a brother's hand To be a king in this barren land But the boy inside just shook his head He chose the living instead of the dead Oh, the circus came to town With a painted smile and a thunderous sound They tried to teach me how to wear the chain To smile and nod and feel the pain But the child I was still asks the sky "Why was I born beneath this sky?" So here I stand beneath the light With a wooden guitar to sing the night I am the man that boy became I cannot play their cruel, sad game I have no answers for the sky I only have this lullaby For the one who didn't ask to be For the silent child, for you, for me